By PTI HYDERABAD: The four accused in the brutal rape and murder of a 25-year-old woman veterinarian have been kept in solitary confinement in high-security cells in the Cherlapally Central Prison here and put under heightened surveillance to ensure their safety, a senior jail official said on Sunday. The four men, all lorry workers, aged between 20 and 24, were arrested on Friday for allegedly raping and killing the woman near here last week and had been remanded to judicial custody by a court for 14 days on Saturday. As the gory incident in which the woman was burnt to death after being raped triggered outrage, the public had staged protests and a section of them hurled stones at a police vehicle when the four were escorted to the prison from a police station on Friday. They have been lodged in high-security cells. They have been isolated from other prisoners. We are keeping a close watch on these four so that they might not do anything (self-injury) to themselves and also other inmates should not attack them because of the gruesome act, the official told PTI. There was high security and they have absolutely no contact with others including among themselves, the official said. An executive magistrate had passed the remand order at the Shadnagar police station, where they accused were lodged, as they could not be produced in court due to the presence of a large number of protesters in front of the police station. Police had used mild force to control the agitating crowd on Saturday and additional forces were deployed while the four accused were being shifted to the jail as a precautionary measure and to avoid any untoward incident.

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