10 policemen get lifer in CP shootout case
New
Delhi,
Oct
24:
A
Sessions
Court
today
awarded
life
sentence
to
all
the
10
policemen,
who
were
convicted
in
connection
with
the
1997
Connaught
Place
shootout
case.
Suspended Assistant Commissioner of Police S S Rathi was among those awarded the life term.
"I sentence them to life imprisonment," Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar said, pronouncing the quantum of punishment to ten policemen.
On March 31, 1997, a Crime Branch team of the Delhi police, led by Rathi pumped bullets into two businessmen -- Pradeep Goyal and Jajgjit Singh--, killing the two at the spot.
Earlier, CBI counsel S K Saxena had sought death penalty Rathi, who led the operation, and head constable Mahaveer Singh and constable Kothari Ram, whose bullets had killed the victims.
Saxena said that their guilt was the rarest of rare case.
The other policemen are Inspector Anil Kumar, Sub Inspector Ashok Rana, Head Constables Shiv Kumar, Tejpal Singh, Constables Sumer Singh, Subhash Chand and Sunil Kumar.
The court on October 16 had held Rathi and nine other Delhi Police personnel guilty under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 193 (giving false evidence) and 120B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The
court
also
ordered
initiation
of
criminal
proceedings
against
ballistic
expert
Roop
Singh
for
giving
false
investigation
report.
According
to
the
prosecution,
the
team
was
chasing
an
alleged
gangster.
In
Connaught
Place,
the
team
surrounded
a
Maruti
Esteem
car
in
which
the
alleged
criminal
was
supposed
to
be
going.
They
then
resorted
to
indiscriminate
firing,
killing
the
two
businessmen
in
the
process.
On
September
8,
1998,
the
10
accused
policemen
were
charged
with
murder,
criminal
conspiracy
and
false
evidence.
All
the
ten
policemen,
including
Rathi
were
suspended
when
it
was
found
that
the
two
killed
in
the
encounter
were
not
the
criminals
but
innocent
civilians.
The
CBI
has
claimed
in
its
chargesheet
in
1997
that
in
order
to
cover
up
their
crime,
the
cops
planted
a
pistol
and
a
few
cartridges
inside
the
car
to
corroborate
its
claim
that
the
first
fire
came
from
the
businessmen.
But
the
forensic
report
disproved
this
theory
that
any
shot
was
fired
from
the
recovered
weapon.
The
sensational
case
had
led
to
the
removal
of
the
then
Delhi
Police
chief
Nikhil
Kumar,
now
a
Congress
MP.
ANI
>