Back in 1996, the Uttar Pradesh police had claimed that they had killed four criminals in an encounter in Bhojpur, Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh. Now, 20 years after the incident, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court of Ghaziabad on Monday has held four cops guilty of murder, destruction of evidence and giving false evidence.
1991 Pilibhit fake encounter: CBI court awards life imprisonment to 47 policemen
Station house officer Lal Singh, sub inspector Joginder Singh and two constables Surya Bhan and Subhash Chand who used to work in the Bhojpur Police station have been held guilty by CBI's Special Judge (anti-corruption) Rajesh Chaudhary. The fifth accused Ranbir Singh died during the trial.
"The case had evoked wide public outrage and the bodies of the victims were cremated as unclaimed. Their families could not even get a last glimpse of the victims. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on February 22," Rajan Dahiya, public prosecutor of CBI told Hindustan Times.
During the alleged encounter that took place in the Machli Bazar area of the Ghaziabad district, forensic investigations have revealed that the four victims had sustained many gun shots as opposed to the single bullet recovered from the body of each of the victims. Jalaluddin, 17, and Pravesh, 17, had sustained five gun shots, while Ashok, 17 and Jasbir, 23, had sustained two shots each.
The four victims belonged to poor families and had gone to Pilkhuwa to earn a living. The four were sitting in a tea stall outside the police station, when they were summoned in, and were allegedly tortured and then killed.
"The country-made weapons which police claimed were recovered from their possession, did not match the bullet claimed to have been fired by the victims. The weapons were found planted. One bullet recovered from the body of Jasbir was found to be fired from the official revolver of IPS officer Jyoti Belur. It is not yet clear whether she had the possession of the weapon or not. She was not an accused in the case but summoned as accused by the CBI court during trial. Proceedings against her will commence once she appears in the court," Dahiya added.
Jyoti Belur was posted as a circle officer in Modi Nagar in 1996. She is said to have resigned in 2007 and later went to the United Kingdom. She has not appeared for the proceedings.
According to Dahiya, in order to establish their theory, the policemen filed fake affidavits of eyewitnesses. Later, it was found that they had taken the signatures of the eyewitnesses on empty papers and used them.
