Growing angst against killers shakes Shadnagar

Shadnagar: Hyderabad witnessed a rare outburst of anger laced with high levels of emotion on Saturday and the area in front of Shadnagar Police station reverberated with slogans, "Hang the killers of Priyanka."

On knowing that the accused in the Priyanka murder case were kept in Shadnagar police station and that they would be produced before a magistrate, a large number of people, including members of students organisations, people's organisations, activists of various political parties and women's rights associations from across erstwhile Mahbubnagar district gathered in front of the police station.

As tension started mounting, the police had put up barricades to prevent the protesting crowd from surging forward.

There was some slogan shouting, angry outbursts and then at one point of time, they even tried to barge into the police station.

They removed the barricades and threw them aside forcing the police to resort to lathicharge. The entire area looked like a battleground with the crowd throwing chappals and pelting stones at police.

As there was no let up in the tension, the police urged the magistrate to come to the police station. The magistrate then drove to the PS and ordered 14 days remand to the accused.

They were angry that the police did not act fast when Priyanka's parents went to PS to lodge a complaint. On the other hand, the police made comments like "she might have gone with her boyfriend".

"These people are not humans and they are worse than animals, they have no right to live. Leave them to us we will stone them and kill them. Why are you wasting time? Either you encounter them or we will do justice."

"Death, death and death is the only solution. Don't produce them in the court; it's just a waste of time. They do not deserve to live even a single minute more," an angry protestor said.

The protestors gave vent to their anger for the second time when the police were taking the accused to Cherlapalli jail, the protestors tried to stop the convoy of buses and police vehicles which were being used as escort vehicles.

They even threw chappals and stones at the convoy and the police lathicharged them for the second time.

Meanwhile, Governor Tamilisai Sounderarajan called on the family of Priyanka and consoled them. She assured them that she would take up the issue with the government and see the case was referred to a fast-track court.

Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said that the Centre has introduced an app which would come to the rescue of people in distress.

He said the Telangana government has been asked to see that steps to make this app work in the state be taken up. He said this issue would also be discussed at the DGPs' conference to be held from December 5 at New Delhi.

He said the Centre would do everything to ensure that the case was referred to a fast-track court for speedy justice. The culprits should be hanged.

Reddy said that steps would also be taken to amend the police act so that in future no policeman will be able to say that the case does not fall under his jurisdiction.