All four accused in the Hyderabad veterinarian rape and murder case have been killed by the police in what they claimed was an 'encounter', a term police are accused to use for extra-judicial killing of people under custody.
The men were killed around 3:30 a.m., according to Priya, a police sub-inspector in Hyderabad who goes by one name.
Another police official said the suspects tried to grab an officer’s firearm and escape during a visit to the crime scene. That officer spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The suspects were taken to reconstruct the crime scene, the rape as well as the spot where she was burned about half a kilometer away, according to Shreedharan, an official in the police commissioner’s office. He also uses one name.
The charred body of the 26-year-old woman, working as an assistant veterinarian at a state-run hospital, was found under a culvert in Shadnagar area of Hyderabad on November 28, a day after she went missing.
Four persons were arrested in connection with the incident on November 29.
The woman went missing November 28 night and her body was found by a passer-by in an underpass on the outskirts of Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana state.
Her last call with her sister Bhavya shows how unknown persons had confronted her from moving ahead citing that she will be in trouble due to her scooter’s flat tyre, New Indian Express reported.
In the call that lasted for six minutes 45 seconds, Priyanka was heard speaking normally, except when she said that she was feeling scared looking at the people who came to her aid.
Bhavya advised her to wait at the toll-plaza, but Priyanka refused saying it would be awkward to stand at the toll-plaza.
To which, Bhavya suggested to leave the scooter at the spot and come back home.
“I started my bike, but they started shouting from behind saying madam your tyre is flat and you cannot go ahead. Though I thought that I can get it repaired at the bus stand, they did not allow me to go ahead. They made me get down and sent a boy to repair it. But he also returned saying all shops were closed,” Priyanka told her sister Bhavya over the phone.
Bhavya said Priyanka last spoke to her at 9.22 pm and her phone was switched off around 9.44 pm.
After waiting for some time, they rushed to the toll-plaza to search for her.
Later they inquired at the shops, at the toll plaza and searched in the surrounding areas, and then lodged a police complaint when they could not locate her.
India has been shaken by a series of sexual assaults in recent years, including the gang rape and murder of a student on a New Delhi bus in 2012.
