New Delhi: The CBI Saturday asked a court here to award the death penalty to seven Uttarakhand policemen convicted of killing a 22-year-old MBA student in a staged shootout in Dehradun in 2009. The court fixed June 9 for pronouncing the sentence.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel and senior public prosecutor Brajesh Kumar asked special judge JPS. Malik to award death penalty to seven policemen, saying they behaved in a "predatory manner", which falls under the act of "rarest of rare".
On Friday, the court convicted 18 policemen involved in the Ranbir Singh staged shootout case that rocked the hill state in 2009.
The convicted policemen are then inspector Santosh Jaiswal, sub-inspectors Gopal Dutt Bhatt, Rajesh Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Nitin Chauhan and Chandra Mohan, constables Ajeet Singh, Satbir Singh, Sunil Saini, Chander Pal, Saurabh Nautiyal, Nagendra Nath, Vikas Chandra Baluni, Sanjay Rawat, Mohan Singh Rana, Inder Bhan Singh and Manoj Kumar and Jaspal Singh Gossain.
Of the 18, seven accused - Jaiswal, Bhatt, Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Chauhan, Chandra Mohan and Ajeet Singh - were convicted for murder, while the other 10 were convicted for conspiring to murder and one was convicted for framing incorrect record.
Jaspal Singh Gossain, the head operator at the city control room, was convicted under section 218 IPC (public servant framing incorrect record).
"They (police) were the protectors of law but they behaved in a predatory manner. They should have given protection to the victim, but they killed him in a fake encounter," the prosecutor said.
He said harsh punishment to the guilty policemen will send a strong message, and "no public person in future can even think of doing such crimes".
"The circumstances under which the victim was killed deserves nothing less then death penalty," he said.
Meanwhile, the court asked police to provide "high security" to the policemen during transit between jail and court after it was informed by the Tis Hazari lock-up in-charge that there may be trouble and moved a plea that the convicts be handcuffed.
The CBI supported the plea.
However, the court declined the plea for bringing the convicts handcuffed, saying "high security" during transit and and other related activities would suffice.
The Tis Hazari lock-up in-charge said in an application that there was apprehension that the convicts may harm each other after their conviction. The official claimed that it was heard the convicts were blaming each other for the outcome of the case while they were been transported.
The policemen were arrested after evidence showed that Ranbir Singh, a resident of Ghaziabad, was gunned down in cold blood by Uttarakhand Police after being caught at Mohini Road where he and his companions were allegedly trying to commit some crime on July 3, 2009.
The trial was transferred from Dehradun to Delhi on the orders of the Supreme Court on a plea by Ranbir`s father Ravindra Singh.
