Cold-blooded murder, not justice

It does not take much more than common sense to know that the killing of the four suspects in the case of the rape and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad was a cold-blooded murder by the police. The circumstances of, and the reasons for, the encounter given by the police are unconvincing and lack credibility. They only point to a pre-planned action, resulting from a conspiracy in the high echelons of police and executed by lower level officers. There was no need to take the accused to the crime scene at 3 am and the police could certainly have caught them alive if they tried to escape. It was the responsibility of the police to ensure fool-proof security. The police commissioner of Cyberabad, V C Sajjanar, has in the past, too, faced charges of encounter killings. The whole police version of the incident seems made up to cover up a crime it committed.

Encounter killings are a serious assault on the rule of law and the system of justice in the country. Those who should enforce and defend the rule of law are themselves undermining it. The police in Hyderabad, whose duty is only to investigate the case, became the judge, jury and executioner in the case. Even the worst criminal has the right to a fair trial, and a civilised society bound by laws cannot function otherwise. A society that has no place for the due process of law sinks into lawlessness and arbitrariness and primitive passions and notions become its guides. Encounter killings happen frequently in the country, with the police taking the law in their hands and taking away the lives of people, who are sometimes accused in cases and at other times even innocent. The police get the shield of politics and power, too. Those who are responsible for and involved in such killings get away with their crimes and that leads to more killings.

The trend is all the more dangerous because an environment that demands and sanctions lawless actions is rising in the country. This is clear from the words of appreciation for the police action from some sections of society, including political parties. Even in Parliament, the lawmakers themselves were heard praising the Hyderabad police for its lawless action. The killings and the approving responses to them are a sign of the failure of the justice system. The remedy is to correct it, not to circumvent it. The Hyderabad policemen involved in the killing should be suspended, investigated and made to face trial if found guilty. Though there is little doubt about how the killings happened, it is necessary to follow the due process in investigations against the policemen, too.