A huge protest broke out on Saturday in front of Shadnagar police station where the four accused in the gangrape and murder of a 25-year-old woman veterinarian were lodged. Stones were hurled at a police vehicle as the accused were being taken to a jail in Hyderabad, with the protesters demanding that they be handed over to them.
Police said the protests broke out in the morning and continued till the evening. Several of the protesters were demanding death penalty for the culprits.
"If you cannot do it, hand them over to us," one of the man was heard shouting, reported PTI.
Meanwhile a local court remanded all the four accused to judicial custody for 14 days. Since police could not produce the accused before the court due to protests, the executive magistrate passed the order inside the station.
Also read
- Murder at Karnataka college campus: 5 things to know as 'jilted lover' stabs Congress leader's daughter to death in Hubballi
- Public smoking leads to murder in Pune; youth stabbed for staring at women with cigarettes
- Holly Bramley death: UK man admits to killing wife, chopping her into over 200 pieces
- Hyderabad woman kills teenage daughter after finding her home with boyfriend
Protests and demonstrations are being held at several places in Telangana and other parts of the country after the charred body of the woman, an assistant veterinarian in a state-run hospital, was found on Thursday near a culvert on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway. She was on her way home late on Wednesday when she was abducted, raped and burnt alive.
Those arrested were identified as Mohammad Areef, Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Chintakunta Chennakeshavalu. The local bar association has resolved not to offer any legal assistance to the accused in the case.
After the family of the victim alleged that the police didn't act on their complaint immediately, the Union home ministry accused the Telangana police of adopting a casual attitude to the incident.
"No one can be turned away from the police station like that. We will make it compulsory for every police station to accept a complaint. The FIR can be filed later; first they should have helped to search the girl," Union Minister of State for Home Kishan Reddy, who visited the woman's family members on Saturday, told NDTV.
The veterinarian's family told the National Commission for Women (NCW) that the Hyderabad police wasted precious time which could have been used to save her life.
NCW chief Rekha Sharma said a team of the women's panel visited the family who told them that the police played a "negative role" in the case. The family members also said the police even alleged she had eloped with someone, Sharma said.
On Friday, Telangana Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali had stoked a controversy after he remarked that the woman should have dialed the police helpline number instead of calling her sister. As his comments stirred up a row, he sought to downplay it, saying the woman was like his daughter.
As protests rage, the MHA said on Friday that it would send an advisory to all states to take precautionary steps to prevent crimes against women.
Besides politicos, celebrities from the Indian film industry including Salman Khan, Shabana Azmi and Farhan Akhtar expressed anger over the incident with many taking to Twitter to vent their outrage.
