'There Will Be Encounter': Telangana Minister Justifies Police Action Against Hyderabad Murder-Rape Accused

Justifying the alleged extrajudicial killing of four accused in the murder-cum-rape case of 26-year-old veterinarian near Hyderabad, a senior Telangana minister on Saturday said that anybody who commits a crime so cruel can expect to be eliminated in a police encounter.

"This is a lesson. If your conduct is wrong, you won't benefit from any court trial, a prison sentence or subsequent bail as the case drags on. There will not be anything like that anymore. Through this, we have sent across a message that if you do something that's so wrong and cruel, there will be an encounter," Talasani Srinivas Yadav, the State Animal Husbandry Minister, was quoted as saying by news reports.

“This is an ideal we have set for the country. We are setting a model not just through our welfare schemes but also through our handling of law-and-order issues,” the Animal Husbandry minister added.

Earlier, Telangana's Transport Minister P Ajay Kumar had praised the state police for gunning down all the accused.

"Telangana is a role model in all respects and it has shown it is a role model even in this matter (ensuring speedy justice). Every citizen is proud of this," he told reporters. Kumar said the killings of the accused in an encounter will give peace to the victim.

"We have shown that if somebody casts evil eye on our daughters, we will gouge out his eyes," the minister told the media.

Meanwhile, a seven-member NHRC team on Saturday visited the site and began its 'fact-finding' probe. Apart from this, two PILs were filed in the Supreme Court seeking investigation by an SIT into the killings and action against the police.

A day after the pre-dawn 'encounter', Telangana police said that they have registered a case in connection with the incident and the four accused killed by it in "retaliatory firing" have been booked for "attacking" the cops who had accompanied them.