Hyderabad: Breaking his silence over the rape and murder of a woman veterinarian, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday announced setting up of a fast-track court for expeditious trial and assured all help to her family as protests against the heinous crime continued.
Facing flak over his 'silence' all these days, Rao, in his first public statement since the incident that has sparked outrage in the country, described the rape and murder of the 25-year-old woman by four men as 'ghastly' and expressed his deep anguish.
Outpouring of outrage continued on Sunday as religious leaders condemned the heinous rape and murder while RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said there can't be any compromise with the dignity of women and children should be taught to always respect them.
The residents of the colony where the woman stayed turned away political leaders and others who wanted to call on her family to express their sympathies, but later in the day Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan and Congress Lok Sabha member A Revanth Reddy met the grieving members.
In other related developments, three police personnel have been suspended for alleged delay in registering an FIR on a missing complaint by the family of the woman while police said they would seek custody of the four accused, remanded to judicial remand on Saturday, for further interrogation.
Cyberabad Police appealed to the media not to telecast continuously programmes on the gruesome murder of the woman and avoid use of her name as it suggested the hashtag "#Justice for Disha" in the social media.
The woman, who worked in a state-run hospital, was raped and killed by the four accused, all lorry workers, on the city outskirts. Her charred body was found under a culvert in Shadnagar near here on Thursday and the accused arrested a day later.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has instructed the officials that the accused in ghastly murder should be tried on fast-track and the culprits should be given stringent punishment. The CM also decided to set up a fast-track court to deal with the case," a release from his office said here.
The release pointed to the verdict in the rape and murder of a minor girl in Warangal given within 56 days of the crime due to the setting up of a fast-track court for the case and said Rao felt the judgement should come quickly in the veterinarian case as well.
The chief minister said the government would extend all necessary help to the family of the woman veterinarian, whose killing has triggered an outrage.
Later at a meeting meeting with the employees of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation, Rao referred to the incident and suggested women employees of the corporation should not be put on night duties, adding humans with an animal mentality were roaming around in the society.
State IT Minister K T Rama Rao, son of the chief minister, on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to amend IPC and CrPC so as to provide for capital punishment to perpetrators of crimes against women and children.
"Amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC) & Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC) so anyone who commits such a heinous act of violence on our women & children are given capital punishment without delay & NO option for review. Time has come to amend archaic portions of our Acts & Laws Sir," Rama Rao, also the TRS working president, said in a series of tweets.
The four accused have been kept in solitary confinement in high-security cells in theCherlapally Central Prison here and put under heightened surveillance to ensure their safety, a senior jail official said.
Protests were held in Hyderabad and various other places in Telangana against the incident on Saturday, with the anguished citizens demanding that the accused be handed out the stringent punishment of death penalty.
