Suspended ACP, nine other policemen get life term

NEW DELHI: In a landmark judgment, a city court on Wednesday sentenced ten policemen of the Delhi police to life imprisonment in the Connaught Place shootout case for ‘murdering’ two innocent civilians.

Quashing the prosecution’s appeal for a death sentence for former ACP SS Rathi, Inspector Anil Kumar, head constable Mahavir Singh and constable Kothari Ram, additional sessions judge Vinod Kumar said, “The prayer for a death sentence is dismissed, the court awards a life sentence to all of you.”

Rathi and his team of nine other policemen were on October 16 convicted under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for gunning down Haryana-based businessmen Pradeep Goel and Jagjit Singh in broad daylight in busy Connaught Place on March 31, 1997.

The court order states that the policemen had no right to take away the life of even a desperate criminal, except in the case of an actual encounter.

During arguments earlier on Wednesday, the Central Bureau of Investigation’s lawyer, SK Saxena had demanded a death penalty for Rathi, Singh and Kothari Ram.
“All the convicted persons were members of a police force and were supposed to be custodians of law and the fact that 34 rounds were fired at the helpless occupants of the car, showed the extreme depravity of their crime,” Saxena argued.

However, the defence lawyers argued that since the investigation had revealed that the two civilians were killed as a result of “mistaken identity”, the case did not fall under the gamut of rarest of the rare cases.

“According to a Supreme Court ruling only rarest of the rare cases warranted death penalty and this case clearly does not fall under that category,” the defence argued.
The police team had reportedly mistaken the two victims to be dreaded Uttar Pradesh gangster Mohammed Yasin and his henchman.

Drawing out Rathi achievements in service, his gallantry medals and out of turn promotions, Rathi’s lawyer told the court, “Rathi was performing his lawful duty during the encounter. Judges should never be bloodthirsty. Criminal courts should not be swayed by sensational nature of offense.”

Welcoming the judgment, Neema Goel, widow of Pradeep Goel said, “I am happy with the life sentence served to the 10 policemen on a murder charge. My faith in the judiciary has been restored. I wish that the police realises the importance of the judgment and practices caution while carrying out encounters. Innocents, like my husband, should not fall prey to someone’s callous mistake.”

Even the CBI, which had strongly recommended death sentence for “at least three of the 10 policemen”, was satisfied with the judgment. However, Sardar Niranjan Singh, the 73 year-old father of Jagjit Singh, expressed his dismay over the sentence. “I was hoping that they would be sentenced to death. I lost my son due to their greed for a promotion. We may appeal again. ”

The tainted ten
The ten officials sentenced to life imprisonment are ACP SS Rathi, inspector Anil Kumar, sub inspector Ashok Rana, head constables Mahavir Singh, Tejpal Singh Shiv Kumar and constables Sumer Singh, Sunil Kumar, Subhash Chand and Kothari Ram.