4 UP cops get life in prison for fake encounter
GHAZIABAD: ACentralBureauof Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday sentenced four Uttar Pradesh cops including a Station House Officer to life imprisonment in the Ghaziabad fake encounter case. The four — inspector of Bhojpur police station, a sub inspector and two constables — were convicted for gunning down four daily wagers in an encounter in Bhojpur on November 8, 1996.
The four cops were held guilty of murder, destruction of evi- dence and giving false evidence on February 20.
During the alleged encounter, four youngsters — Jalaluddin, Jasbir, Ashok and Pravesh — were gunned down by the policemen, terming them as criminals.
After the investigation and trial which lasted more than two decades, CBI’s special judge (anti-corruption) Rajesh Chaudhary had on Monday held then station house officer Lal Singh, sub-inspector Joginder Singh and two constables Surya Bhan and Subhash Chand as guilty for murder. The fifth accused Ranbir Singh died during the course ofthetrial.
The court also imposed a penalty of ₹2 lakh on Lal Singh for murder, and ₹1 lakh each on the other three accused. They were fined ₹20,000 each for destruction of evidence and ₹10,000 each for providing false evidence.
A curious aspect of the case is that the CBI investigation also found that a bullet recovered from Jasbir’s body was allegedly fired from the official revolver of then IPS officer Jyoti Belur.
Belur was not among the accused charge sheeted by the CBI, but the court later summoned her on September 9, 2007. She is stated to be in UK and failed to make a personal appearance in the case so far. “We will make efforts for her extradition from the UK,” Dahiya said.
When HT reached out to Belur in London, where she teaches in the department of security and crime science in the University of London, and asked about her status as accused in the Bhojpur encounter case, she said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
According to home ministry sources, Belur never resigned from service and went on leave without authorisation. In November 2016, the home ministry considered her leave for over 11 years as a deemed resignation.