Hyderabad vet rape-murder case: Shashi Tharoor opposes need to condemn killings of accused, says 'must wait until details of encounter emerge'

New Delhi: Soon after all the four accused in the rape and murder of a 26-year-old woman veterinarian in Telangana were killed in a police encounter on the wee hours of Friday, Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor said that people should not rush to condemn until the details emerge. The accused were killed by the Telangana Police as they tried to escape during recreation of the crime scene at Chatanpally near Shadnagar, where the victim’s charred body was found. Replying to a journalist’s tweet who pointed out the encounter incident to be a possible case of ’extra judicial killing’, Tharoor took to Twitter and shared his views in this regard. “Agree in principle. We need to know more, for instance if the criminals were armed, the police may have been justified in open firing preemptively. Until details emerge we should not rush to condemn. But extra-judicial killings are otherwise unacceptable in a society of laws,” Tharoor tweeted.

Agree in principle. We need to know more, for instance if the criminals were armed, the police may have been justified in opening fire preemptively. Until details emerge we should not rush to condemn. But extra-judicial killings are otherwise unacceptable in a society of laws. https://t.co/BOMOjCYrb1

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) December 6, 2019

On 27 November, the woman veterinarian was brutally gang-raped and killed by four people before they burnt her body in Shamshabad area. The four accused were in judicial custody at Cherlapally Central Jail in Hyderabad.