Four cops get life sentence in 20-yr-old Bhojpur fake encounter case
The four accused were found guilty of falsely implicating the four daily wage labourers in a case and murdering them in Bhojpur, Ghaziabad on November 8, 1996
GHAZIABAD: Twenty years after the Bhojpur fake encounter case in Ghaziabad, which claimed the lives of four innocent daily wage labourers, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday sentenced four Uttar Pradesh Police personnel to life imprisonment.
The four accused – including an inspector of Bhojpur police station, a sub inspector and two constables – were found guilty of falsely implicating the four victims in a case and murdering them in Bhojpur on November 8, 1996.
On Wednesday morning, the Court hearing began for the case, which was labelled ‘rarest of rare’.
After heated discussions, the Court was finally convinced by the existing evidences produced by the victims’ lawyer.
The special CBI judge held station house officer Lal Singh, sub-inspector Joginder Singh and constables Surya Bhan and Subhash Chand guilty for murder. The fifth accused Ranbir Singh died in the course of the trial.
The deceased were four young daily wage labourers, namely Jalaluddin, Jasbir, Ashok and Pravesh from Vijay Nagar area in Modi Nagar.
They had come to the city in search of work and were picked on the afternoon of November 8 from a tea stall in Bhojpur area. They were then tortured at the police station and later killed following a fake encounter, even before the senior officials could investigate further. The accused cops claimed that all the four deceased triggered open fire on them and were killed by the police in cross firing.
However, CBI initiated an investigation and found them guilty of falsely implicating the four labourers and killing them. However, the involvement of then IPS officer Jyoti Belur in the encounter is still unclear, even after the bullet recovered from the body one of the victims Jasbir was allegedly fired from Belur’s service revolver. It is yet to be determined whether she was actually involved in the fake encounter or her official revolver was used by any other official.
If the later scenario is found to be true, it would be seen as irresponsible behaviour on part of the woman IPS officer as her service firearm was used by another police official.
Shockingly, Belur was never charge-sheeted by the CBI, which apparently overlooked the fact that the bullet recovered from Jasbir’s body was shot from belur’s revolver.
Belur was then the Circle Officer in the rank of Assistant Superintendent of police. She is now said to be living in United Kingdom and has failed to make a personal appearance in the case so far even, despite having been summoned by the Court.