Uttarakhand fake encounter: HC convicts 7 cops, frees 10

Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday gave life imprisonment to seven suspended Uttarkhand policemen for killing a 22-year-old MBA student in a fake encounter in Dehradun in 2009. The court, however, set aside the conviction and life term of 10 other suspended policemen.
A Bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta upheld the trial court’s June 9, 2014 verdict regarding seven policemen, who murdered Ranbir Singh on July 3, 2009.The details of the judgement are awaited as the judges only read out the operative portion during the pronouncement.
Ranbir Singh, the 22-year-old student from Gaziabad ,was shot dead by the Dehradun Police on July 3, 2009, in the Ladpur forests.
After the incident, the Uttarakhand Police had claimed that Ranbir had fled with a Sub-Inspector’s pistol and was shot dead during an encounter.
Later, it was found that it was a fake encounter and the state government had ordered a CBI inquiry.
Interestingly, during the investigations, the CBI came to the conclusion that Ranbir and his accomplices had indeed come to Dehradun with the purpose of dacoity, but after being confronted by SI GD Bhatt, they had a scuffle with him and after beating him up, the two had fled. But Ranbir was caught alive by the police. The CBI had registered cases against 14 policemen.
All of them were on security duty on July 3, 2009, in view of the visit of then president Pratibha Patil.
The CBI has submitted before the court that the victim had gone to Dehradun to take up a job on July 3, 2009 and the theory of the convicts “is a story”.