Has Cyberabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar once again delivered 'instant justice' in the case of a heinous crime against women?
People on social media started discussing this after all the four accused in the brutal gang rape and murder of a young veterinarian were gunned down by the police early Friday near Shadnagar town, about 50 km from Hyderabad.
After the shocking crime on November 27, a section of people have been demanding Sajjanar to deliver justice as he had done in the past while serving as the Superintendent of Warangal district in undivided Andhra Pradesh.
It was on December 12, 2008 that the police had killed all three accused in an acid attack on two girl students in Warangal. The official had then claimed that the accused S. Srinvas Rao, Potharaju Harikrishna and B. Sanjay were killed when they attacked policemen while trying to escape.
The incident had occurred near Mamnoor hillock, on the outskirts of Warangal, where they had reportedly hidden the material used to target the two engineering students.
Though police had claimed that it opened fire in self-defence, it was believed that it acted to quell the public outrage triggered by the crime.
The then Congress government headed by Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had come under criticism for ensuring protection to women.
Human rights activists, however, had slammed the government and the police for 'extra-judicial' killing. After the November 27 incident, Cyberabad Police had come under flak for its handling of a missing complaint lodged by the victim's family, about two hours after she spoke to her sister over the phone stating that she was stranded near the Outer Ring Road and was frightened.
The victim's family alleged that the police wasted a lot of time over jurisdiction issue and responded four hours later. Three policemen were later suspended by Sajjanar. The Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the 1996 batch was supervising the investigations into the horrific crime. He had constituted various teams to probe the case.
Sajjanar, an official of the rank of Inspector General of Police, took over as the Commissioner of Cyberabad in March 2018.
One of the three commissionerates in Greater Hyderabad, Cyberabad covers the Information Technology hubs of Hitec City, Gachibowli and other key clusters on the outskirts of the city.
Sajjanar, who earlier held key positions in undivided Andhra Pradesh and subsequently in Telangana, was also believed to be instrumental in the killing of Maoists in the encounter.