YS Jaganmohan Reddy has praised his counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao for the Cyberabad encounter in Telangana in which the four men accusing of raping and killing Disha were killed on Friday morning. In fact, he congratulated KCR on the first day of the winter session in the Andhra Pradesh during a debate on crimes against women. 

“Disha brutal rape and murder in Hyderabad really hurt me and there is nothing wrong in shooting the accused. Hats off to KCR and the Telangana police officers,” said Jagan.

Describing himself as a father of two daughters, Jagan spoke of how a similar scene of an encounter in a movie would get claps for the hero from the audience and make the film a hit. 

“But here if someone with courage does this, they face the team of the National Human Rights Commission that comes marching from Delhi,” said Jagan.

Two points need to be noted here. Jagan is bestowing on KCR the mantle of having ordered the hit even as the Cyberabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar’s version is that the police fired in self-defence after the accused attacked the 10-member police team. This, coupled with Telangana Animal Husbandry minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav’s version that “there is a lot behind the CM’s silence” will embarrass KCR.

Two, what is the message the chief minister is sending to the police machinery in his state. That it is okay to get trigger-happy? That he will congratulate every encounter cop in Andhra Pradesh? That he will allow the police force to take over the role of the judiciary? 

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister needs to realise that as a constitutional head, he is duty bound to follow the law of the land, not to turn the state into a jungle where the men in khaki sign the death warrant.