Ex-Delhi Police chief on Nirbhaya gangrape case says... : Never thought of killing accused

New Delhi: Former Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar, who handled the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, on Friday said the thought of killing the accused never crossed his mind.

Kumar recalled that it was a "tough time" when the Nirbhaya case was reported in December 2012 since the policemen were treated as "rapists".

"We were getting messages, asking us to throw the accused in front of hungry lions. Someone said castrate them in public, someone said lynch them, but we just stuck to our guns. There was no question of doing anything illegal," he said.

Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, who had earlier advocated public lynching of rapists, commenting on the Telangana police encounter in which the four accused in the rape and murder of a woman veterinarian in Hyderabad were killed, reacted to the news, saying, "der aaye durust aaye (better late than never)"

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said while the people of the country are rejoicing the encounter deaths in Hyderabad, it is also worrisome that they have lost faith in the justice system.

"Very unfortunate", former Supreme Court Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly said it was an indication of something sinister - protectors of the law taking the law in their own hand.

Ganguly also did not find convincing the police version that the four accused had tried to flee, and said the "right to trial of even the most heinous perpetrators of crimes cannot be snatched in this way".

BJP lawmaker Locket Chatterjee lauded Telangana Police. "This is a very good step taken for our country, I felt really good when I read this news in the morning. The soul of the rape victim must be at peace now. Her family must be at peace. Such encounters should be made legal," Chatterjee told ANI.

Defending the Telangana police, Bengaluru top cop Bhaskar Rao termed it as "correct and timely action" given the situation.

Had the accused escaped from custody, the police would have been under tremendous pressure, the Bengaluru Police Commissioner said.

Custodial rapes

Custodial rapes are yet another problematic aspect of extrajudicial killings. The 1972 Mathura rape case highlighted the problem of sexual assault and violence faced by women in prisons and in police custody. Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states with the highest number of custodial rapes.

In a report cited by a Parliamentary panel in 2017, there were 95 cases of custodial rape in Uttar Pradesh in 2015. Condemning custodial rape while eulogising custodial killing is ironic and laughable.

A 2018 survey of 15,562 respondents across 22 States conducted by Centre for Study of Developing Societies found that less than 25 per cent of Indians trusted the police to do their job.

Almost 30 per cent of all police cases in 2016 were pending investigation. Moreover, a third of the 31 million cases across India's subordinate courts have been pending for more than three years, Mint reported in June.