Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan on Monday suggested in the Rajya Sabha that the accused in crimes such as the alleged rape and murder of a 27-year-old Hyderabad veterinarian should be lynched in public. Both Houses of Parliament discussed women’s safety on Monday, and MPs across party lines demanded stringent action against such crimes.

“I think it is time...whether Nirbhaya or Kathua or what happened in Hyderabad...,” Bachchan told the Rajya Sabha. “I think the people now want the government to give a proper and definite answer. What has happened, how they have tackled it, and how far the justice has been done to these people.”

Bachchan said the security personnel in charge of the area where the crime took place must be held accountable. “I think these people need to be shamed in front of the entire country, people who have not done their jobs properly,” she said.

On the accused, she said: “It may sound a little harsh, but these types of people [the rape accused] need to be brought out in public and lynched.”

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Other MPs also spoke strongly on the subject.

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Vijila Sathyananth broke down during the speech and said the accused must be hanged before December 31, according to Hindustan Times. “The country is not safe for children and women,” she added. “A fast-track court should be set up. Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislator P Wilson said courts should be empowered to surgically and chemically castrate convicted rapists before they are released from jails so as to check repeat offenders, PTI reported. He added that a list of sexual offenders should also be made public.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Kumar Jha said deterrence in such cases was not enough. BJP leader RK Sinha reminded Parliament that capital punishment is yet to be given those guilty of the 2012 Delhi gangrape.

Union Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that the Centre was “open to every suggestion to curb such heinous crimes”, ANI reported.

“We can have a full discussion in the House and all suggestions given by everyone present here will be taken and a law can be formed if needed,” Singh said. “Our government is open to every suggestion anyone has to give to curb such heinous crimes. We are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that the most stringent rules be implemented.”

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy also assured the Lok Sabha that the government is ready to amend the Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure to ensure justice in the Hyderabad case. He added that the government has written to state and police forces over the matter and various parties will be consulted.

The case

The incident took place on Wednesday when the woman left home around 5.50 pm to visit a dermatologist in Gachibowli. She parked her two-wheeler near Shamshabad toll plaza and took a shared cab from there around 6.15 pm. On her way home, the woman realised that the rear tyre of her vehicle was punctured. Around 9.15 pm, the four accused – identified as Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen, Mohammad Areef and Chintakunta Chennakesavulu – approached her with offers to help.

According to a remand report accessed by NDTV, three of the accused allegedly forced the woman into a bush and raped her. They then smothered her to death, drove the body some distance away and set her on fire around 2.30 am.

Before being attacked, the woman called her sister for help. The family approached the police around 10 pm and were reportedly sent from one police station to another over jurisdictional matters. The police did not search areas where the vet was last seen, her sister alleged. Instead, they reportedly asked if the woman had a boyfriend and was in regular touch with men, and sought to know her phone habits. The family alleged that the police presumed that the woman had gone away with someone on her own. Three police officials have been suspended for delaying the registration of a first information report.

The accused were sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Saturday. The police on Monday sought custody for 10 days.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday assured people that a fast-track court would hear the case. Rao’s comments came after protests were held across Hyderabad. As public figures arrived at the woman’s colony in Shamshabad on Sunday, angry residents locked its gates and held up placards that read: “No media, no police, no outsiders”, and “no sympathy, only action, justice”.