Law of the Gun | Hyderabad rape-murder case

The law has done its duty. That's all I can say." That was how V.C. Sajjanar, 51, the police commissioner of Cyberabad, described the police killing of the four men accused of the rape and murder of 27-year-old Disha at Chatanpally in the suburbs of Hyderabad on December 6. He was responding to questions during a media briefing some nine hours after the killings, having been asked if his deputies had taken the law into their own hands. He also clarified his position, stating that the police will take cognisance of any inquiry into the incident. But soon after the briefing concluded, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) announced that it would be sending a seven-member team, headed by IPS officer Manzil Saini, to investigate the incident the next day.

What Sajjanar and the Telangana police perhaps did not expect was the sharply polarised reactions the killings would provoke, from celebration to condemnation. The former was perhaps inevitable. With impatience at the slow pace of justice in such cases -- the capital punishment awarded to the accused in the 2012 Nirbhaya case is yet to be carried out -- the national mood has turned