IPS officer case: Defence witnesses allege Gurjar framed

Three defence witnesses on Monday alleged that the sole accused Manoj Gurjar was "falsely implicated" in the IPS officer Narendra Kumar Singh killing case.

Indore: Deposing before a special CBI court here in the IPS officer Narendra Kumar Singh killing case, three defence witnesses on Monday alleged that the sole accused Manoj Gurjar was "falsely implicated."

Virendra Singh, Rajveer Singh and Ramesh Singh appeared before the CBI court of Justice Anupam Srivastava as defence witnesses and were cross-examined by CBI`s senior public prosecutor A H Khan and defence lawyer Mahendra Morya. All three of them told the court that Manoj Gurjar`s tractor-trolley overturned on the roadside at Bhagtipur in Banmore at around 7.30 am on March 8, 2012 whereas the alleged killing occurred in the afternoon that day when the IPS officer was allegedly "mowed down by another tractor-trolley." Ramesh Singh, the accused`s maternal uncle, also told the court that Manoj was illegally detained in the police station of Banmore when the latter went to report the accident case till evening, and was "falsely arrested and implicated in the case," according to defence lawyer Morya. During cross examination, Khan asked the defence witnesses whether they were present at the time when Manoj`s tractor-trolley had overturned somewhere else, and whether they got any factual evidence in support of their statements which they made in the court today, to which "the trio did not respond." Later, Khan said the defence witnesses were relatives of the accused, hence they tried to make a story of separate accident of tractor-trolley without any substantive evidence in the court. Three more defence witnesses would depose before the court tomorrow. The court has framed charges against Manoj Gurjar under sections 304 (culpable homicide) and 353 (use of criminal force to prevent government official from discharging his duties) of IPC and section 181 of the Motor Vehicle Act. Gurjar is accused of mowing down Singh when the latter tried to stop the tractor-trolley, loaded with illegally mined stones, in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh on March 8 last year. Thirty-year-old Singh was posted as sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) at Banmore at the time of the incident. PTI