NEW DELHI, Sept 1: The Delhi High Court today sought response of CBI on the pleas of 14 suspended Uttarakhand cops, who have challenged their conviction and life imprisonment for killing a 22-year-old MBA student in a fake encounter in Dehradun in 2009.
The trial court on June 9 had awarded life imprisonment to 17 Uttarakhand policemen for the murder of Ranbir Singh on July 3, 2009.
One cop was acquitted of charges of murder and conspiracy but was convicted for falsifying records.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Vipin Sanghi issued notice to the probe agency and its sought response within 12 weeks on the appeals as well as bail pleas of 14 of the 18 convicted policemen.
The appeals of the remaining convicts, including Jaspal Singh Gosain, who was acquitted of murder and conspiracy charges but convicted for framing incorrect record with an intention to save a person from punishment (section 218 IPC), are pending before another bench of the high court.
CBI was also directed by the bench to file a chart of the roles assigned to each of the appellant-convicts in the charge sheet and the relative findings of the trial court.
“Appeals admitted. Issue notice. Trial court records are called for. List the matter for possible final hearing. Respondent (CBI) shall file a chart of the roles assigned to each appellant-convicts in the charge sheet and relative findings of the trial court,” the court said.
It was also of the view that since most of them had obtained bail at some point in the trial proceedings, “there appears to be no ground for suspension of sentence”.
The cops in their appeal have alleged that the deceased Ranbir Singh, a resident of Ghaziabad, had gone to Dehradun with two others to commit dacoity and had also snatched the service revolver of one of the appellants, all of whom were on security duty on July 3, 2009, in view of the visit of then President Pratibha Patil.
CBI on the other hand submitted before the court that the victim had gone to Dehradun to take up a job on July 3, 2009 and the theory of the appellant-convicts “is a story”.
The order was passed on the appeals of Sunil Saini, Mohan Singh Rana, G D Bhatt, Nagender Rathi, Nitin Chauhan, Rajesh Bisht, Ajeet Singh, Inder Bhan Singh, Chander Mohan Singh Rawat, Neeraj Kumar, S K Jaiswal, Satbir Singh, Vikas Baluni and another.
The trial court had convicted and awarded life term to Jaiswal, Bhatt, Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Nitin Chauhan, Chander Mohan Singh Rawat — all sub-inspectors — as well as constable Ajeet Singh for the murder of the victim for firing 29 bullets at him from close range.
Eight other constables Satbir Singh, Sunil Saini, Chander Pal, Saurabh Nautiyal, Nagender Rathi, Vikas Chander Baluni, Sanjay Rawat and Manoj Kumar and two drivers Mohan Singh Rana and Inderbhan Singh were convicted and awarded life imprisonment for offences under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with sections 364 (kidnapping to murder) and 302 (murder) of IPC.
Gosain — the then head operator at city control room — was acquitted of these charges.
Of the 18 policemen, some were from police station Dalanwala, others from police station Nehru Colony and some from Special Operation Group (SOG), all of Dehradun city.
The place of incident was Ladpur forest which fell under the jurisdiction of police station Raipur in Dehradun.
The trial court had rejected the theory of Uttarakhand Police that Ranbir, who had graduated in MBA from Meerut University, 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 Patil’s visit.
The trial court had also noted that the seven cops had killed Ranbir in a fake encounter by firing 29 bullets from a close range in “furtherance of the conspiracy to kill him”. The policemen were charge sheeted by CBI in connection with the encounter case. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel