17 U'khand cops get life term for 2009 killing
".... "I want death for all the policemen who killed my younger son," said the weeping mother of Ranbir. .....", but Special CBI judge J P S Malik spared the convicts the gallows saying the crime did not fall in the "rarest of rare" category
Sana Shakil,TNN | Jun 10, 2014, 05.07 PM IST
Sana Shakil
NEW DELHI: Observing that the protectors of law had turned into murderers in the 2009 killing of 24-year-old MBA Ranbir Singh, a trial court on Monday sentenced 17 Uttarakhand police personnel to life imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on each of the 17 convicts and ordered that the amount be given as compensation to Ranbir's father, Ravinder Pal Singh. The judge added that since this may not be adequate for rehabilitation of Ranbir's family, Delhi Legal Services Authority may consider giving more compensation.
Special CBI judge J P S Malik spared the convicts the gallows saying the crime did not fall in the "rarest of rare" category. Noting that life imprisonment is the rule and death an exception, the court said: "Do not think they would be a menace to society. Many of the convicts, particularly the subordinate staff like constables, are of young age and were not armed at the time of incident". Ghaziabad resident Ranbir Singh, who was killed on July 3, 2009, had gone to Dehradun to take up a job.
Ranbir's parents, who had come to the court along with relatives, expressed disappointment over the punishment and said they would challenge the verdict in a higher court. "I want death for all the policemen who killed my younger son," said the weeping mother of Ranbir.
The court described the killing as a fake encounter, saying Rabir was murdered and not killed in crossfire as the police had claimed. According to the police, Ranbir was caught on the spot while his associate had run away. Ranbir, according to them, had snatched the pistol of sub-inspector GD Bhatt, who had caught hold of him. On being chased, Ranbir had opened fire and was killed in the Ladpur jungles, the convicts had said. The court found no truth in this version and relied upon the testimony of various eyewitnesses to conclude that Ranbir was picked up from the spot and kept in illegal custody at Dalanwala police station in Dehradaun before he was murdered.
The judge also rejected the Uttarkahand cops' claim that they fired in self-defence and acted on sudden provocation and accepted the contention of CBI that Ranbir was murdered.
The po lice that one Ct Karunesh, and not Ranbir, was nabbed on the spot and taken to a local police station was also rejected by the court. It also dismissed the blame game between the convicts.
The convicts included sub-inspectors Santosh Kumar Jaiswal, Gopal Dutt Bhatt (SHO), Rajesh Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Nitin Chauhan, Chander Mohan Singh Rawat, 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. The 18{+t}{+h} convict, Jaspal Singh Gosain, was convicted only for fabrication of evidence and released by the court on furnishing a bail bond as he had undergone the term which could have been the maximum punishment for the offence.
The judge also relied on the testimonies of the staff of a dharamshala where Ranbir was residing to establish that he had been picked up from the spot. It said the police reached the Dharmashala within half an hour of the scuffle adding that had the police not nabbed Ranbir and without his guidance, they would not have managed to reach the Dharamashala in such a short span of time.The court held that 17 of the 18 convicts were part of the conspiracy to kill Ranbir, adding that Ranbir's murder was passed off as an encounter to escape punishment.
"Knowing that offences of abduction and murder had been committed, they prepared a false fard showing Ranbir Singh had been killed in an encounter," the court noted.
It, however, observed that the common cause behind Ranbir's murder was not established. "The policemen of Dalanwala Nehru Colony police stations and Special Operation Group, all of Dehradun city, were involved. However, what the common thread between them has not been revealed," the court said. The judge observed the fact this was not a genuine encounter was highlighted by another factor. The place of incident (where a scuffle took place between Ranbir and the cops) is Ladpur forest which is in Raipur PS area, but the cops from that police station were kept away from the encounter. "The President was visiting the city on July 3, 2009. The city was on high alert, but the policemen of police station Raipur were nowhere," said the court.
times news network
New Delhi: Expressing disappointment over the punishment awarded to the killers of their son, Ranbir Singh's family on Monday said they would file an appeal against the order and seek death for the 17 convicts in the case. On Monday, the court awarded life imprisonment to seventeen Uttarakhand police personnel for killing 24-year-old Ghaziabad resident Ranbir Singh in a fake encounter in Dehradun in 2009.
Ranbir's parents, who had come to the court along with relatives, said they would challenge the verdict in a higher court. The eighteenth convict--Jaspal Singh Gosain, was convicted only for fabrication of evidence and was released by the court on furnishing a bail bond as he had already undergone the jail term which could have been the maximum punishment for the offence.
"I want death for all the policemen who killed my younger son," said the weeping mother of Ranbir. Besides sentencing the 17 convicts for life imprisonment, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on each of them and ordered that the fine amount be given to Ranbir's family. Apart from this, the judge also observed that the fine amount shall not be adequate for their rehabilitation and therefore, Delhi Legal Services Authority should consider awarding more compensation to the family.
Ranbir's father, Ravinder Pal Singh, however, said the fight was not about money at all. "Will any amount compensate for his life? We want them to be hanged for taking away the life of my innocent son. Death penalty for all them can give us some satisfaction, nothing else can." On the other hand, families of some of the convicts broke down in court on hearing the punishment awarded to the convicts. The wife of one of the convicts, Santosh Kumar Jaiswal, said the judge should have given some thought to the fate of her small kids.
"Where will we go? He (Santosh) is the only earning member in the family," she shouted, before being taken out of the court room. "Most of the policemen have young children, three to four years old. Who will take care of them," asked another convict's wife.
*****************
FOLLOW http://twitter.com/ATMwithDick on twitter or http://vinayak.wordpress.com/ on wordpress or http://evinayak.tumblr.com/ FOR 100s of high court and supreme court cases
regards
Vinayak
Father of a lovely daughter, criminal in the eyes of a wife, son of an compassionate elderly mother, old timer who hasn't given up, Male, activist
No comments:
Post a Comment