The family members of the policemen, who were convicted in the Ranbir Singh fake encounter case by a CBI court in Delhi on Friday, met the Uttarakhand Director -General of Police (DGP), BS Sidhu, and sought his help to rescue them. Sidhu assured them that the police department will take all possible legal action to help them and will challenge the CBI court verdict in the High Court.
Sumitra Baluni, mother of Vikas Chandra Baluni, alleged that the court had not heard the policemen seriously and gave a one-sided verdict. Vikas has an eight-year old daughter and she (mother) is a cancer patient. “This decision has destroyed the family of 18 policemen. No one at home can take care of the family members. Vikas has been in jail for the last two years. Despite poor economic condition, we will challenge this decision in the High Court” the grieved mother said.
Driver Mohan Singh Rana's wife questioned how a driver can be convicted in fake encounter case. “The Court has given verdict one sided which is wrong. In regard to this case, policemen were not heard properly. Rana has been in jail for the last two years and we were getting half salary but after his conviction, no salary will be disbursed by the department," she added.
It should be mentioned here that a Central Bureau of Investigation court in New Delhi on Friday convicted 18 Uttarakhand Police personnel, seven of them for murder and others for various offences including criminal conspiracy and kidnapping in a fake encounter case in which a 22 year old MBA student was shot dead in Uttarakhand in 2009. The cops were chargesheeted by the CBI in connection with Ranbir Singh encounter case that took place in July 2009 during the then President Pratibha Singh Patil's visit to Uttarakhand.
Except Jaspal Singh Gosain, all other 17 cops including Santosh Kumar Jaiswal, Gopal Dutt Bhatt, Rajesh Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Nitin Chauhan, Chander Mohan Singh Rawat, Ajit Singh, Satbir Singh, Sunil Saini, Chander Pal, Saurabh Nautiyal, Nagender Rathi, Vikas Chander Baluni, Sanjay Rawat, Manoj Kumar Mohan Singh Rana and Inderbhan Singh were convicted for the offence of conspiring to kidnap and murder the student.