V S Sajjanar : The police commissioner behind the Hyderabad encounter

Cyberabad police in Hyderabad Friday early morning killed four accused in the gang rape and murder of the 26-year-old veterinarian in what they call as ‘encounter’. Police said they were attacked by the accused with sticks and stones, their weapons were snatched.

The events took place between early morning 3 PM to 6.30. The police claimed they had gone to the crime scene to recreate the crime scene and to collect the material objects like cell phone fo the victim.

The police comissioner CV Sajjanar, gave the press briefing in the afternoon. “they confused the police, attacked them with sticks, snatched weapons from the cops and started firing. “The police had to fire in retaliation killing the four persons.” he also said that the law has done its duty.

Andhra Pradesh of which Telangana was a part of is no new to encounter killings.

Several elements of this morning’s killings are similar to a case in 2008, where three men accused of an acid attack were also suddenly killed in a ‘police encounter’ in Warangal, Telangana.

When one looks at the events of Friday morning, one finds them strangely similar to the Warangal incident that happened 11 years ago.

In both cases, the police claimed that the accused men tried to escape and thus were shot. In fact, police all over India use the same script for encounter.

In December 2008, the AP police gunned down three men accused of throwing acid on two women engineering students. In this case, the police were informed that the girls were being harassed by these men, the police did not take any action. Bu after the acid attack,  arrests were made 48 hours within the attack on the girl and the encounter happened within three days.

Similar to Friday’s reported encounter, the then SP said that a police team had gone with the accused to the scene of the crime to collect evidence. However, the men reportedly tried to attack the cops with crude bombs. Sajjanar had said that the cops opened fire in self-defence, killing all three accused.

The police told the media that the accused men, taken to the spot for a reconstruction of the crime scene, attempted to attack the cops by taking their guns.

Though the families of the accused and rights activists had questioned the encounter, Sajjanar became a local hero.

The AP Chief Minister of the erstwhile united state at the time was Congress’ (late) YS Rajashekar Reddy.

Sounds familiar??

It doesn’t end there. After the Warangal encounter, VS Sajjanar also oversaw the encounter of alleged Maoists P. Sudhakar Reddy and his associate in May 2009.

Does call for stricter punishment or Encounters reduce?end crimes against Women?