Nirbhaya's parents welcome H'bad encounter; Tharoor cautions against extra-judicial killings

The father of Nirbhaya, the 23-year-old paramedic student who died days after being gangraped in Delhi in December 2012, welcomed the news of the death of the accused in the Hyderabad gangrape-and-murder case in a police encounter on Friday and said the family's wait for justice ended early. Had the police not acted promptly and shot the accused, they would have fled and might not have been caught again, he said.

"It is good that the police showed prompt response and acted. Otherwise the accused would have fled and it would have been difficult to catch them. The escape would also have raised questions on the efficiency of the police," he told PTI over phone. The father of the paramedic student, who was brutally gangraped inside a moving bus in the national capital on December 16, 2012, said they had been waiting for justice for seven years now.

"The family of the Hyderabad doctor will not have to wait for seven years for justice like us. We can understand the pain of her parents. At least, they got justice early," he said. The mother of Nirbhaya appealed to the authorities not to punish the policemen involved in the encounter.

Nirbhaya's grandfather also welcomed the steps, saying steps like these will deter those involved in such heinous acts. "I appreciate the killing of rapists by the police in an encounter. Such steps will create fear among rapists and deter them from committing such heinous acts," he told reporters at his ancestral village in Ballia.

He said his family has heaved a sigh of relief after the encounter. "The way in which rapists are using loopholes in the judicial system, such encounters are necessary. The Parliament should enact a law enabling police to kill such persons in encounters," he said, adding that no one should question the police action.

He said had the police taken such action in the Unnao case, the girl would not have been set on fire. "My grand daughter was raped seven years ago and the accused have still not been given capital punishment. Had they (accused) been given capital punishment, the country would not have been in such anger," he added.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor sounded a word of caution, saying extra-judicial killings were not acceptable. "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," the former Union minister said in a tweet.

National Commission for Women (NCW) chief Rekha Sharma said she was happy that the accused in the Hyderabad gangrape-and-murder case were dead, but added that justice should have been done through proper legal channels.