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Updated: Aug 02, 2020 01:18 IST

There have been mixed reactions to the killing in an encounter with police of the four accused in the rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in Telangana.

Officials said the four men were shot dead around 3.30am under a bridge on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad national highway near Chattanpalli village in Shadnagar.

While some leaders have commended the police, some others were more cautious in their reaction.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati commended Hyderabad Police and also slammed the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh for not doing enough for the safety of women in the state.

“Police in Uttar Pradesh and also in Delhi should take inspiration from Hyderabad Police, but unfortunately here criminals are treated as state guests. There is jungle raj in Uttar Pradesh right now. Hope the attitude changes for the better,” Mayawati said while speaking to news agency ANI in Lucknow.

“Crimes against women are on the rise in Uttar Pradesh, but the state government is sleeping,” she said.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti also said in a series of tweets that all the policemen who executed the encounter deserve to be felicitated.

“This is the biggest incident in the 19th year of this century that will guarantee women’s safety,” Uma Bharti tweeted in Hindi.

“I can now believe that people in governance in other states will find ways to teach criminals an immediate lesson,” she said.

“Grief of the family whose daughter went away from the world after suffering mercilessness will never be alleviated, but that sister’s (rape victim) soul will find peace and the fear among other girls of India will be lessened. Jai Telangana Police.”

Bharti’s party colleague Rajyavardhan Rathore also tweeted his “congratulation” for Hyderabad Police. The former sports minister said that this would set a precedent in the country.

“I congratulate the Hyderabad police and the leadership that allows the police to act like the police. Let all know this is the country where good will always prevail over evil (Disclaimer for holier than thou- police acted swiftly in self-defence) #Encounter #hyderabadpolice,” Rathore tweeted.

The mother of the young woman who was gang-raped and murdered in December 2012 in Delhi also congratulated the police.

“I am extremely happy with this punishment. Police have done a great job and I demand that no action should be taken against the police personnel,” she said, according to ANI.

However, while BJP MP Maneka Gandhi condemned the encounter, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was more cautious in his reaction.

Maneka Gandhi said that one cannot take law into one’s hand. “Jo bhi hua hai bohot bhayanak hua hai is desh ke liye (what happened is really bad for the country). .. you cannot kill people because you want to. You cannot take law in your hands, they(accused) would have been hanged by Court anyhow.”

#WATCH Maneka Gandhi:Jo hua hai bohot bhayanak hua hai desh ke liye. You can't take law in your hands,they(accused) would've been hanged by Court anyhow. If you're going to shoot them before due process of law has been followed, then what's the point of having courts,law&police? pic.twitter.com/w3Fe2whr31 — ANI (@ANI) 6 December 2019

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor told ANI, “We should not rush to condemn until details emerge.”

The chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Rekha Sharma, said the accused should have been brought to justice through “proper channels”.

“As a common citizen, I am feeling happy that this was the end we all wanted for them. But this end was supposed to be through the legal system. It should have happened through proper channels,” Sharma was quoted as saying by ANI.

“We always demanded death penalty for them, and here the police are the best judge, I don’t know in what circumstances this happened,” she said.

All the four accused were shot dead by Telangana police after they allegedly tried to escape while being taken to the spot where the charred body of the doctor was found last week.

The four accused were arrested and were in judicial custody and lodged in high-security cells at Cherlapally Central Jail in Hyderabad.