Nearly five years after an MBA graduate was gunned down in a fake encounter in Dehradun, a Delhi court on Friday convicted 18 Uttarakhand policemen, including seven on a charge of murder. Eleven others were convicted on the related charges of conspiring to kidnap and murder the 22-year-old Ghaziabad resident Ranbir Singh, who had gone to Dehradun to take up a job in July 2009. One policeman was later let off as he has already served the jail term for a lesser offence.
The trial had been transferred from Dehradun to Delhi on the orders of the Supreme Court on the plea of Ranbir’s father Ravindra Singh. Special CBI Judge JPS Malik rejected the theory of the Uttarakhand Police that Ranbir who was riding on a bike along with two others, had snatched a revolver from a policeman when they were stopped for checking in view of the President’s visit on July 3, 2009.
Arguments on the quantum of punishment will be heard on Saturday. Those convicted for murder are Sub-Inspectors Santosh Kumar Jaiswal, Gopal Dutt Bhatt (SHO), Rajesh Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Nitin Chauhan, Chander Mohan Singh Rawat and Constable Ajit Singh.“Accused 1 to 7 (Santosh, Gopal, Rajesh, Neeraj, Nitin, Rawat and Ajit) are held guilty and convicted for substantive offence punishable under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC read with Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and for substantive offence punishable under section 364 (kidnapping to murder) of IPC read with Section 120B of IPC,” the judge said.
Except for Jaspal Singh Gosain, all other 17 police officials were convicted for the offence of conspiring to kidnap and murder Ranbir. “Accused 1 to 18 (excluding Accused-17) are held guilty and convicted for offence punishable under Section 120B of IPC read with Sections 364 and 302 of IPC,” the judge said. Apart from Santosh, Gopal, Rajesh, Neeraj, Nitin, Chander Mohan and Ajit, the other ten convicts are 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.
The court convicted accused Gosain for the offence of a public servant framing an incorrect record with the intention to save a person from punishment (Section 218 IPC) but released him on the period already undergone behind bars. He was acquitted of all the other charges. Gosain, the then head operator at the city control room, was directed to furnish a bail bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of the like amount. The cops were chargesheeted by the CBI in connection with the Ranbir Singh encounter case that took place in July 2009 during then President Pratibha Patil’s visit to Uttarakhand.
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.