Former Maharashtra top cop D Sivanandhan on Friday decried the 'encounter' of four accused in the Hyderabad rape and murder case, but some other former cops, including BJP leader Satyapal Singh, backed the action.
The four men arrested for the rape and murder of a 25- year-old woman veterinarian in Hyderabad were killed in an 'exchange of fire' with a police team on Friday morning.
Former Maharashtra Director General of Police D Sivanandhan said this kind of "short cut" will not help with prevention of crime in the long run.
The 1976-batch IPS officer, whose tenure in Mumbai in the 1990s saw several encounters of gangsters, said, "After the encounter, the police may get praised for a short period, but it is not good in the long run."
Another former top official of Mumbai Police said, requesting anonymity, "Whatever happened should not have happened, especially when the accused were in police custody."