Seventeen Uttarakhand policemen convicted in a fake encounter of a 22-year-old MBA student on Monday escaped the gallows with a city court awarding them life imprisonment, much to the disappointment of the victim’s family, who vowed to challenge it in a higher court for death penalty.
The cops were handed down with life term as the court said that the crime committed by them, does not fall in the rarest of rare category warranting capital punishment. The victim Ranbir Singh’s parents present along with other family members in the courtroom immediately expressed their disappointment saying they would like to see all of them hanged and would approach the higher court against the verdict.
“I want death for all the policemen who killed my younger son,” the victim’s mother, who was seen crying, said. The wife of one of the convicts, Santosh Kumar Jaiswal, also broke down in the courtroom and said the judge should have once given a thought to the fate of her small kids.
“Where will we goIJ He (Santosh) is the only earning member in the family,” she shouted, before being taken out of the court room. Detailing the facts and circumstances of the case, Special CBI Judge JPS Malik said that “the case is purely based on circumstantial evidence and conviction is based on conspiracy between the convicts. I am of the opinion that the case does not fall in the category of rarest of rare case.”
Noting that life imprisonment is rule and death sentence in an exception, the court said, “Do not think they would be a menace to the society. Many of the convicts, particularly the subordinate staff, like constables are of young age and were not armed at the time of incident.”
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 directly 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 further said that the fine recovered shall be given to the victim’s father as compensation. The judge also said that the compensation awarded to the victim’s father, the recovered fine, shall not be adequate for their rehabilitation, therefore, Delhi legal Services Authority (DlSA) should look for more compensation.
However, when asked about the compensation of Rs 5.5 lakh to be given to him on courts direction, he said that the fight was not about money at all. “Will any amount compensate his lifeIJ” he asked.