PTI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 9
SEVENTEEN Uttarakhand police personnel, convicted of killing a 22-year-old MBA graduate in 2009 fake encounter, were today awarded life term by a Delhi court, a verdict which the victim’s family received with disapppointment saying death sentence should have given.
The life imprisonment was handed down by Special CBI Judge J P S Malik to the 17 policemen after having held them guilty on June six of involvement in the conspiracy to kidnap and kill Ghaziabad resident Ranbir Singh, who had gone to Dehradun to take up a job on July 3, 2009.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on seven cops--six Sub-Inspectors Santosh Kumar Jaiswal, Gopal Dutt Bhatt (SHO), Rajesh Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Nitin Kumar Chauhan, Chander Mohan Singh Rawat and constable Ajit Singh--who were held guilty of killing the victim.
It has also directed 10 other policemen, convicted for conspiracy to kidnap and kill Ranbir, to furnish a fine of Rs 20,000 each.
The court asked the authorities concerned to give the collected fine as compensation to the family of Ranbir, who had graduated in MBA from Meerut University.
However, the family of the victim, which was present in the court, expressed unhappiness over the verdict and said they will appeal against it in the higher court.
The victim’s mother, who was seen crying, said, “I want death for all the policemen who killed my younger son.” Meanwhile, the wife of one of the convicts, Santosh Kumar Jaiswal, broke down in the courtroom, saying, “Where will we go? He (Santosh) is the only earning member in the family.”
The court, which had convicted policeman Jaspal Singh Gosain for the offence of a public servant framing incorrect record with an intention to save a person from punishment (section 218 IPC), however, awarded him two years imprisonment, which he has already undergone during the trial period.
Gosain, the then head operator at city control room, who was acquitted of all the other charges, was directed to furnish a bail bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of the like amount.
Apart from the seven cops convicted for murder, other ten policemen--Constables Satbir Singh, Sunil Saini, Chander Pal, Saurabh Nautiyal, Nagender Rathi, Vikas Chander Baluni, Sanjay Rawat and Manoj Kumar and drivers Mohan Singh Rana and Inderbhan Singh--were convicted under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with sections 364 (kidnapping to murder) and 302 (murder) of IPC.
The court had on Friday rejected the theory of Uttarakhand Police that Ranbir was riding a bike along with two others and had snatched a revolver from a policeman when they were stopped for checking in view of then President Pratibha Patil’s visit to Uttarakhand on July 3, 2009.
The policemen were chargesheeted by CBI in connection with the encounter case.
They were arrested in the wake of evidence that Ranbir was allegedly gunned down by Uttarakhand Police after being caught at Mohini Road where he and his companions were allegedly trying to commit a crime on July 3, 2009. Two of Ranbir’s friend were arrested later and are facing trial in a separate case of robbing in Uttarakhand.
