Friday morning’s encounter near Hyderabad in which four men accused of raping and murdering a veterinarian 10 days, were killed by the police has evoked mixed reaction among parliamentarians.
In the Lok Sabha, Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said there is a need for a law so that cases of crimes against women are heard directly in the Supreme Court to ensure speedy justice to victims.
“A law needs to be constituted through which such (crimes against women) cases are heard directly in Supreme Court. Currently procedure starts from lower courts. The process goes on and on. I appeal to you (Speaker) to set up a committee to discuss this,” Sawant said.
Meenakshi Lekhi of the BJP seemed to back the police action of shooting the accused who cops said snatched their weapons and opened fire on them and tried to flee.
“Police have not been given weapons for keeping as show piece”, she said during Zero Hour.
Outside Parliament, Kanumuru Raghu Rama Krishna Raju, YSR Congress Party MP said all the four accused deserved to be shot and warned that any NGO opposing the police action would be anti-national.
“They deserved to be shot dead. God has been kind that they were shot dead, this is a good lesson. They tried to run away and they were killed. No NGO should oppose it and if they do so, they are anti-national.”
Navneet Rana, Independent MP from Maharashtra also backed the killing of the accused Being a mother, a daughter and a wife, I welcome this or else they would be in jail for years.”
She also said that the rapists of Nirbhaya should also be dealt in the same way.
But former Union minister and BJP MP Maneka Gandhi described the killings as horrifying. “What happened was horrifying for the country… You cannot kill people because you want to. You cannot take law in your hands, they (accused) would have been hanged by court anyhow,” she said.
Another BJP MP, Locket Chatterjee endorsed the police action and advocated legal sanction for such action.
“The soul of the rape vicyim must be at peace now her family must be at peace. Such encounters should be made legal,” Chatterjee said.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor advocated patience to wait for details of the encounter.
“We should not rush to condemn until details emerge,” Tharoor said on the Telangana encounter.
In the Lok Sabha, the Congress also raised the issue of the Unnao rape survivor who is on life support in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital after suffering 90% burns.
“The Unnao victim has 95% burns, what is going on in the country? On one hand there is a Lord Ram temple being built and on the other hand Sita Maiya is being set ablaze. How are criminals feeling so emboldened?” Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, leader of the Congress said.
Congress MPs later staged walkout from Lok Sabha in protest against Unnao incident.
