Indian police have shot dead four men suspected of raping and killing a young female vet in Hyderabad last week.
The men were in police detention and were taken back to the scene of the crime in the early hours of Friday.
The suspects were shot when they tried to steal the officers’ guns and escape, police told BBC Telugu.
The 27-year-old victim’s charred remains were discovered last Thursday – leading to outrage and protests over alleged police inaction.
After news of the killings broke, the victim’s mother told the BBC that “justice has been done”.
Meanwhile, neighbours celebrated with firecrackers, and thousands of people took to the streets to hail the police.
What happened on Friday?
Cyberabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar told BBC Telugu that police took the accused to the scene to reconstruct the crime.
Police shot the men when they tried to grab the officers’ guns and escape, he said.
Two police officers were also injured.
The police were heavily criticised after the rape and murder of the vet – particularly when the victim’s family accused them of inaction for two hours.
How have the victim’s family reacted?
BBC Telugu’s Deepthi Bathini visited the family in their home, where neighbours could be seen celebrating the news by bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets.
“I can’t put it into words. I felt happiness but also grief because my daughter will never come home,” the victim’s mother said.
“My daughter’s soul is at peace now. Justice has been done. I never thought we would get justice. No other girl should experience what my daughter did.”
The mother added that she wants the law on sexual assault and rape to be “stricter”.
“Men should be scared to even stare at women – because they will be punished.”
The victim’s sister said the police action was “very unexpected”.
“I was expecting court trials and the court to deliver justice. This will not bring my sister back, but it is a great relief. Because of the police action, people will think twice before they do something like this again,” she said.
How did the vet’s murder unfold?
The victim left home on her motorbike at about 18:00 local time (12:30 GMT) on Wednesday to go to a doctor’s appointment.
She called family later to say she had a flat tyre, and a lorry driver had offered to help. She said she was waiting near a toll plaza.
Efforts to contact her afterwards were unsuccessful, and her body was discovered under a flyover by a milkman on Thursday morning.
Last week, three police officers were suspended when the victim’s family accused them of not acting quickly enough when the woman was reported missing.
Officers had suggested she may have eloped, relatives told the National Commission for Women, a government body.
Are women any safer in India today?
Rape and sexual violence against women have been in focus in India since the December 2012 gang-rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in the capital, Delhi.
But there has been no sign that crimes against women are abating.
According to government figures, police registered 33,658 cases of rape in India in 2017, an average of 92 rapes every day.
Source:BBC
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