Congress seemed to be a divided lot on the issue of encounter of four accused in Hyderabad on Friday. While senior party leader and a lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi has come out in support of the Hyderabad police action, former Home Minister P Chidambaram demanded a thorough probe. Another senior leader of the party and a Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor said extra-judicial killings were not acceptable.
While the leaders expressed their opinions and also took to social media party’s General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi is all set to launch a protest to highlight the plight of women and farmers across the country and particularly in Uttar Pradesh of which she is incharge. Sources close of the Priyanka said she has asked workers to ensure fullscale youth and women mobilization for a proposed ‘Bharat Bachoa Rally’ rally on December 14 in national Capital.
The Congress General Secretary is on a two-day visit to Lucknow where she met the strategy group of the party and discussed the law and order situation in the state and how to begin mass protest at the backdrop of Unnao and Hyderabad rape cases in which the victims were burned.
The party however late in the evening officially said that only after a magisterial inquiry a stand can be taken on the encounter of all the four men accused of raping and murdering a 25-year-old Hyderabad woman veterinarian last month.
“A magisterial inquiry is taking place. I just cannot speak on what will be the outcome of the magisterial inquiry, but we should wait... We need to hear the police version because all encounters cannot be bracketed into the same terminology,” Congress MP Amee Yajnik said at a AICC press conference.
Chidambaram said the encounter should be thoroughly inquired into to find out if it was a genuine encounter. “I am not aware of the facts and what happened in Hyderabad. As a responsible citizen, I can say it must be thoroughly inquired into, to find out if it was a genuine encounter whether they were trying to flee or was it anything else,” said Chidambaram who is ut on bail after 106 days in Tihar Jail in a corruption case.
“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,” Tharoor said.
Priyanka took to social media and slammed BJP MP from Unnao, Sakshi Maharaj, for wishing MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, accused of rape on his birthday. “A lawmaker and BJP MP is giving best wishes to rape accused MLA. Only yesterday (Thursday) in Unnao, a rape survivor was set on fire. When lawmakers will stand in support of rape accused, how will anybody fight with the criminals,” Priyanka tweeted.
Sakshi had posted his birthday wishes for Sengar from his official Twitter handle on Thursday.