Hyderabad pre-dawn encounter sets a dark precedent

What happened in Hyderabad this morning was the best that one could expect. It was a great thing to do by the police. Else, courts would have taken years. This is the way to go and should be repeated in similar cases in other states too.”

This was what I heard as I walked on the tony M G Road to my office in Bengaluru. The reaction was matched by the celebration through the day in many parts of the country following the police encounter in which four alleged rapists were shot dead.

The reaction on the street, the celebration and the encounter, all presented a mixed picture — support for a Taliban-like system, frustration over the judicial system etc.

Whatever the celebration or popular opinion, the extra-judicial killing can, in no way, be condoned in a democratic country rooted in its legal system. The police story was a familiar one like in all encounters: the accused tried to attack the police and attempted to escape, they were asked to surrender but did not. The police had to fire at them in self-defence.

But then, were they the real culprits? No one knows except those who were killed. And perhaps the rape victim. One hopes they were not arrested to show prompt action by the police swamped by pressure from the public.

‘What if?’

It was the police who said the four were the rapists. It was the police who arrested them. It was the police who said the accused tried to escape.

No one else knows what exactly happened. What if there was a fifth or a sixth rapist? Or only one or two or three raped and the fourth was not involved? If there was a fifth one, he has escaped scot-free, perhaps forever.

The police want us to believe that there were only four rapists and that the matter is now closed.

Should we blindly believe the police? If the police can give us justice, then why have a judicial system? Where is the need for the courts?

Would the police have pulled the trigger had the accused been children/relatives of powerful people? Now, will the police in other states take the rape accused to the site where the dastardly act was committed and shoot them dead? What if the rape and killing happened in a police station, would the police have allowed the killing of the accused colleague?

Frustration, lack of faith

This action of the police taking justice delivery into their hands is a dangerous act and may be frequently replicated elsewhere.

The celebrations over the encounter, however, point to frustration and a lack of faith in the judicial system, especially the time it takes for cases to reach their logical end.

No one supports rapists. One fully understands the pain and suffering of the family members, relatives, and friends of the Hyderabad victim.

The best homage to the victims of rape and murder is the arrest of the real culprits, thorough investigation and punishment awarded by the court in the shortest possible time, say within weeks or a few months from the date of the gory incidents.