Shocked families question police action

The killing of the four accused in the Hyderabad veterinarian’s gang-rape and murder has shocked their families, who questioned the police action of gunning them down in an ‘encounter’ even before a trial.
The families of the two truck drivers and two cleaners said they would not have been upset if they had been punished by the court after a fair trial.
As the news of the police gunning down the accused reached them, the families in Telangana’s Narayanpet district reacted with shock.
Mother of Mohamed Pasha alias Arif, the main accused, broke down when media persons reached her house to speak to her. “I have lost my son. What do you want me to say?” the woman asked.
Arif’s father Mohamed Hussain and other relatives left for Shadnagar town in Ranga Reddy district to take the body.
Another accused Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu’s pregnant wife Renuka wanted the police to kill her too. “I cannot live without my husband. Kill me too,” she said crying inconsolably.
“The police picked up my husband promising to bring him back. But, they have now shot him dead,” said Renuka, who had married Chennakeshavulu about a year ago.
Rajappa, father of Jollu Shiva, wondered why the police did not give similar punishment to rapists and murderers in the past. “Why only my son and three others were killed?” he asked.
Fourth accused Chollu Naveen’s father Ellappa lamented that the police did not allow him to meet his son. “They should have allowed us to meet and talk to him. The police had time to prove him and others guilty before the court and punish them,” he said.
Meanwhile describing the alleged encounter killing of the accused as “very unfortunate”, former Supreme Court justice Asok Kumar Ganguly yesterday said it was an indication of something sinister – protectors of the law taking the law in their own hand.
Ganguly also did not find convincing the police version that the four accused had tried to flee, and said the “right to trial of even the most heinous perpetrators of crimes cannot be snatched in this way”.
“The incident is very unfortunate. I am unable to understand the police version of the incident. Police are claiming they took the culprits to the locality to do a reconstruction of the crime. I agree they have committed the most heinous crime. If they had snatched the weapons of the police, then how did the police shoot them dead?” he asked.