Four UP cops given life sentence for killing innocent labourers in fake encounter 20 years back

A special court in Ghaziabad awarded life sentence to four Uttar Pradesh Police personnel in a case of extra judicial killing of four youths 20 years ago. Inspector Lal Singh, Sub Inspector Joginder Singh and constables Surya Bhan and Subhash Chand were convicted by the special CBI court for murder, destruction of evidence and producing false evidence, CBI spokesperson R K Gaur said.

The court also imposed a penalty of Rs 2.30 lakh on Lal Singh, Rs 1.30 lakh on Joginder Singh and Rs 80,000 each on the two constables, he said. "The court has further directed that 50 per cent of the total fine will be given equally to the family members of all the four victims," he said in a statement.

It was alleged that Jasbir Singh, Jalaluddin, Ashok and Pravesh, all residents of Ghaziabad, were shot dead in an encounter by personnel of Bhojpur Police Station on November 8, 1996 when they opened fire at the police party.

"Investigation conducted by CBI disclosed that four innocent persons were killed by police in an encounter. They had no criminal record and were not required by Bhojpur Police Station or any of the nearby police stations in any criminal case. They had no fire arms with them and did not fire at the police party as falsely shown in the FIR," CBI said.

The court said the four youths were killed in an extra judicial manner by the police personnel. The CBI probe found that the deceased were working as labourers and were picked up by the police officials of Bhojpur Police Station, the spokesperson said, adding they were taken to Macheri ki pulia on Modi Nagar-Hapur Road (UP) and shown killed in an encounter.

He said after thorough investigation, CBI filed a charge sheet against the five accused persons during 2001. During trial, one constable died. Ninety nine prosecution witnesses were examined.