Letters to BS: We must examine why people want 'an eye for an eye'?

This refers to “The legitimisation of vengeance” by Shyam Saran (December 11), wherein the writer calls the public jubilation over the encounter killings as “vulgar outpouring of accolades for the Hyderabad police”. It would be prudent to examine why the public is reacting this way. Legal delays in India are well known. Criminals sentenced to death are always given a long rope, to file review and mercy petitions, with their sentences frequently getting commuted to life imprisonment, following the dictum “better 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer”.
 
The Nirbhaya case is a classic example of the