Order to fire came from senior officers: constable

New Delhi, Apr 26 (UNI) In a significant development, one of the accused policemen in the infamous Connaught Place (CP) shootout case of 1997, in which two businessmen were mistakenly assumed as gangsters and shot dead, has told a city court that he had shot at the duo on the instructions of his superior officers.

Appearing before the court of Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Vinod Kumar yesterday, one of the accused, Sunil Kumar, stated that on March 26, 1997, he was in a car, following the jeep of ACP S S Rathi. They stopped their car near the fire station in CP. Rathi ordered him to be self-defensive. Then he fired from his .5 bore pistol at a car in which gangster Mohd Yasin was travelling. The firing continued for 5-6 minutes. Rathi also ordered to stop firing, according to the prosecution.

Earlier on April 24, another accused Head Constable, Tej Pal, stated in the court that, on the fateful day, his police team was ordered by the ACP and an inspector to chase the car in which gangster Mohd Yasin was travelling. The car stopped on the Barakhamba Road and the occupants of the car allegedly fired at the police team, hesaid.

On the instructions of his senior officers, Tej Pal added, the team fired at the occupants in ''self-defence''. A pistol was later seized from the occupants of the car, the policeman claimed.

The occupants of the car, however, turned out to be Pradeep Goel and Jagjit Singh, two businessmen who died in the firing, while a third occupant was injured. The incident led to the Union Home Ministry handing over the case to the CBI.

The investigative agency charged the members of the police party - ACP S S Rathi, Inspector Anil Kumar, SI Ashok Rana, Head Constable Shiv Kumar, Head Constable Tej Pal Singh, Head Constable Mahavir Singh and constables Sumer Singh, Subhash Chand, Sunil and Thai Ram-- under different sections of the IPC.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet in April 1997 and the court framed charges on September 18, 1998.

All of them were charged under sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The case will now come up for a hearing on July 18.

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