A Telangana minister on December 7 supported the encounter of four accused in rape and murder of the 26-year-old Hyderabad veterinarian. He said that anybody who commits a crime so cruel can expect a police encounter, NDTV reported.

Telangana Animal Husbandry Minister, Talasani Srinivas, said, “This is a lesson. If your conduct is wrong, you won’t benefit from any court trial, a prison sentence or subsequent bail as the case drags on. There will not be anything like that anymore. We are setting a model not just through our welfare schemes but also through our handling of law-and-order issues.”

He also credited the encounter to the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and said that the reconstruction of the crime scene by the police could not have happened done without the “permission from above”.

Rao had attracted flak for not visiting the Hyderabad rape-murder victim’s family or issuing a statement on the case. Telangana Transport Minister P Ajay Kumar had earlier commented on the similar lines. He had said that the state had proved itself to be a role model in ensuring “speedy justice”.

The minister accepted that police were under pressure for immediate action and mentioned that there might not have been justice if the accused had gone through due process. He said that that judicial process will be luxating. “Indian law, judicial process… will go on forever,”  The Indian Express quoted, the minister as saying.

All the four accused were gunned down by police on Friday, November 6 at 3:30 am in Chattanpalli, around 300 km from Hyderabad. The police had taken them to the crime scene to recreate the incident where they tried to flee and were gunned down. The four had allegedly gang raped and murdered 26-year-old woman veterinarian and then burned her body.

Also Read: ‘Justice Must Never Take The Form Of Revenge’: CJI Bobde On Hyderabad Encounter Killings