HC uphold conviction of 7 cops in Ranbir encounter

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

The Delhi High Court today upheld the conviction of seven Uttarakhand policemen for the infamous Ranbir Singh fake encounter that took place in Dehradun in 2009. At the same time, the high court set aside the conviction and life term of 11 other policemen who were also held guilty in the fake encounter case.

A special CBI court in Delhi, which conducted the trial, had convicted 18 policemen for the murder of an MBA student Ranbir Singh who was killed in a fake encounter in the forest area near Raipur. While 17 were awarded life imprisonment, one was handed a two-year jail term. However, the Delhi High Court held only seven of them guilty and acquitted 11 others in the case. The High Court verdict came on a plea by all 18 police personnel challenging the trial court verdict in the case.

The convicted policemen included six sub-inspectors, Santosh Kumar Jaiswal, Gopal Dutt Bhatt (SHO), Rajesh Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Nitin Kumar Chauhan, Chander Mohan Singh Rawat, and constables, Ajit Singh, 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.Policeman Jaspal Singh Gosain was convicted under Section 218, Indian Panel Code, for framing incorrect record with an intention to save a person from punishment. As such, he was awarded two-year imprisonment.

In the fake encounter, the Uttarakhand Police had allegedly pumped in 22 bullets in the body of Ranbir Singh. They had claimed that 29 rounds of firing had taken place and he was gunned down after being chased from Mohini Road where he and his companions were trying to commit a crime on July 3, 2009.
However, the post-mortem report exposed the police theory. Around 22 bullet marks were found in the body of Ranbir Singh in addition to injury marks.

Special CBI judge JPS Malik had held the 18 policemen guilty of involvement in the conspiracy to kidnap and kill Ranbir Singh, who went to Dehradun for a job, on July 3, 2009.

It had also rejected the theory of the police that Ranbir 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 then President Pratibha Patil’s visit to Uttarakhand on July 3