Hang the cops behind fake encounters: Supreme Court

New Delhi, Aug 9: In a scathing attack on the police officers who carry out fake encounters, the Supreme Court on Aug 8 said that such cops should be hanged to death.

Justice Markandey Katju observed while hearing the fake encounter case of an alleged gangster by Rajasthan Police on October 23, 2006, "Fake encounter killings by cops are nothing but cold-blooded brutal murder which should be treated as the rarest of rare offence and police personnel responsible for it should be awarded death sentence. They should be hanged."

And added, "If crimes are committed by ordinary people, ordinary punishment should be given but if the offence is committed by policemen, much harsher punishment should be given to them because they do an act totally contrary to their duties."

While making the observations, the apex court asked the CBI to arrest within a month the six absconding cops of Rajasthan police, including additional director-general of police A K Jain and additional superintendent of police Arshad Ali, in the Dara Singh fake encounter case.

Referring to the six absconding policemen, the bench comprising of Justices Katju and C K Prasad said, "We are surprised that they have not yet been arrested. We direct that no stone be left unturned in arresting these absconding accused persons. Law is above all howsoever high they may be. The CBI is directed to arrest the absconding accused persons within one month from today."

The encounter by Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group took place on October 23, 2006, in which they claimed that Dara Singh was shot when he was fleeing from custody.

The CBI had named 14 policemen and two private individuals in the chargesheet filed in the case.

OneIndia News