2019 Hyderabad gang rape and murder

In November 2019, the gang rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in Shamshabad, near Hyderabad, sparked outrage across India. Her body was found in Shadnagar on 28 November 2019, the day after she was murdered. Four suspects were arrested and, according to the Cyberabad Metropolitan Police, confessed to having raped and killed the doctor.

The Telangana Police Department stated the victim parked her scooter near a toll plaza, catching the attention of two lorry drivers and their assistants. According to police, they deflated her tire, pretended to help her, and pushed her into nearby bushes, where they raped and smothered her. Allegedly, they loaded her corpse onto a lorry and dropped it by the roadside.

The police arrested four men based on the evidence gathered from CCTV cameras and the victim's mobile phone. The accused were taken into judicial custody at Cherlapally Central Jail for seven days. The Chief Minister of Telangana ordered the formation of a fast-track court to try the accused for their alleged crimes. The rape and murder elicited outrage in several parts of the country. Protests and public demonstration against rape were organised nationwide after the incident, with the public demanding stricter laws against rape and rapists. The Minister of Home Affairs criticised the Telangana Police and stated that the government intended to amend the Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure to introduce laws for quicker punishment by fast-track courts.

All four accused were killed on 6 December 2019, under a bridge on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad national highway, while they were in police custody. According to the police, the suspects were taken to the location for a reconstruction of the crime scene, where two of them allegedly snatched guns from the policemen escorting them and attacked the police. In the ensuing shootout, all four suspects were shot dead. Some accused the police of extrajudicial execution, while hundreds of thousands of people celebrated the men's deaths.

The first post-mortem of the four accused who were killed in the encounter was conducted on the same day at a government hospital in Mahbubnagar from where the bodies were subsequently moved to the Gandhi Hospital. The Telangana High Court on 21 December ordered the re-postmortem of the four accused. The second autopsy was done by a team of forensic experts of AIIMS Delhi at a hospital in Hyderabad. After re-postmortem, the bodies were handed over to the next of kin after due identification process was done. In 2022, an Inquiry Commission appointed by the Supreme Court of India concluded in its report that the custodial killing had occurred in a staged encounter, and the matter was transferred to the Telangana High Court for further action.