"No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right, not asked as a favor." ~ Theodore Roosevelt

According to the National Crime Records Bureau Report in 2016, of the 3.38 lakh crime cases against women, rape cases constitute 11.5% of them.But out of every 4 reported cases only 1 case ends up with conviction. This is just a record of reported cases, in many cases the crime never reaches the police station.And that 1 case which goes to the court lingers on for decades and no one is answerable.

Most of the time this delay leads to tampering of evidence, political pressure, public rage and even proves to be a threat for the witnesses.Like The Nirbhaya case, despite political and public pressure at the highest level, it took more than seven years to reach closure. Severity of the case or national outrage also does not make any difference except as seen in the recent Hyderabad Police encounter.

On November 27, a young doctor Priyanka Reddy, who worked in the kolluru village, went missing on Wednesday night and was found dead and charred in the outskirts of Hyderabad on Thursday morning.According to reports, Priyanka parked her scooter at the toll plaza and took a cab to the hospital.Accused saw Priyanka doing so and made a proper plan to rape her. When she returned she saw that her rear wheel of the scooter was punctured.

According to the CCTV footage, two men offered her help in fixing the punctured vehicle and they took her scooter for getting it fixed. Both of them returned after a short period and claimed that all nearby repair shops were closed and they helped her by taking it to another shop, according to the Police. Priyanka called her sister Bhavya around 9 o'clock to discuss what happened and said that two unknown persons offered her help in fixing the two-wheeler.

During the communication, she said some lorry drivers were sitting there in their lorries nearby and she was not feeling safe and secure. A little later Bhavya observed that Priyanka's phone was switched off.After waiting for some period, her family and sister went to the toll plaza to find her, but she wasn't anywhere near. Around 11:00 PM, they filed a missing complaint at Shamshabad police station near the toll plaza.

At first the police officials presumed that Priyanka had gone out with someone known and started asking the family if she had a boyfriend and asked them about all her connections with men, because of which three police officials have also been suspended for delaying the filing of the FIR. After the complaint was filed and police started doing the investigation on Thursday morning Priyanka's charred body was found 25Km away from the toll plaza.Priyanka's dead body was recognized by the necklace and clothes she was wearing on that day.

When the news reached the media, it became a hot topic. "Justice for Priyanka Reddy" slogans, and hashtags became a new trend. Everybody somehow or the other wanted to give their opinion and in the end wanted the accused to be hanged as soon as possible.

Protest demonstrations broke out as the horror crime left the entire state shocked to the core. This led to various rallies and protests via teenagers demanding justice. Many Celebrities, actors, cricketers etc, displayed their grievances via tweets and posts on social media. A lot of social outrage was visible which was putting a lot of pressure on the police officials and ministers of Telangana.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao assured people that a fast-track court would hear the case and justice would be provided soon.The incident triggered widespread criticism of the law-and-order situation in the state. As public figures arrived at the colony in Shamshabad on , angry residents locked its gates and held up placards that read: "No media, no police, no outsiders", and "no sympathy, only action, justice".

On December 6, Telangana Police made headlines at National level,with the sensational killing of the four accused in an encounter. The police Commissioner of Cyberabad, VC Sajjanar told the media that they reached the crime spot at early hours to enact the same crime scene again where the accused suddenly snatched weapons from the police and fired at the police, and then the police open fired in retaliation which resulted in the death of the four accused on the spot.

Now the question arises whether justice has really been done or not ? If we follow the Approach of Rule of Law then no justice has been done because the situation as specified by the police proves the fact that the encounter was fake or preplanned.

This is because if the police really wanted to investigate why would they take the criminals along at the early hours when nobody would be around and if we assume that some genuine motive was there, wouldn't the accused be accompanied by a lot of officials which makes it practically impossible for the four unarmed men to attack the police and if we further believe that maybe even this happened, surely not all four would have taken the weapon and attacked.

Why in the end none of them survived alive ? Why were all four killed on the spot by the police? Thus it becomes very difficult and hardly digestible to consider the whole encounter true.

No Natural Justice was provided to the accused , none of them was heard in the court. If this is the idea of justice then what is the need of courts and judges? All justice should be done without investigation. Now the families of the accused demand justice saying that their son were killed in order to save the real culprits and the accused in reality were actually innocent.

All of it has been done in order to tamper with the evidence as grieved by the family in the 36 page writ petition filed by them. While a lot of people feel that justice has been served, some would have liked the traditional route of the law. People are no longer immune to the fact that such horrific things are still happening and in most cases, rapists roam free. In this world where everything is instant, people want instant justice as well. But in our country rule of law is followed, instant justice means revenge and thus comes under the rule of men which is against our constitution.

Two wrongs don't make a right is rightly said quote. But some people support the encounter stating that if the case would have gone to the court it would have taken years till the actual conviction would have taken place just like in the Nirbhaya rape case of Delhi where the accused were alive even after long traumatic wait of seven years. No doubt the argument stands valid that Indian court system lacks a lot in time basis but this instance sets a dangerous precedent for our future cases.

And if now the police are left free and no action is taken, who guarantees that no such police encounter would take place in future? And what if the accused were only suspects and not actual guilty culprits, and the real culprits still move freely outside.