By Omar Rashid
New Delhi: It was a textbook case of what is usually called a ‘police encounter’ under the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh since 2017. A police patrolling team intercepts an incoming bike late at night. The bike carries two men. The police use a torch to signal them to stop at a check post. Instead of stopping, the bike speeds ahead. The police chase them. Upon finding themselves cornered, the suspects leave the bike and try to escape on foot. The police ask them to surrender but they fire shots at them with country-made pistols. The police escape unharmed but shoot both suspects in their legs, apparently in self-defence. Police recover country-made pistols and stolen items from them. A case of attempt to murder is lodged against the suspects for shooting at the police with the intent to kill. The suspects are sent to jail. But only this time, the story fell apart. It was proven to be a fake encounter.
Almost five years after police in Kanpur shot two men in the legs in an alleged ‘encounter’, a local court has ruled that the illegal weapon claimed to have been recovered from them had been was actually taken by the police from the malkhana, or evidence room, from a 2007 case and planted on the two men. In other words, the same weapon was produced as evidence in two separate cases, 13 years apart.
A court on April 1 acquitted Kanpur residents Kundan Singh and Amit Singh of all charges after ruling that they were falsely implicated by the police by showing false recovery of weapons from them. While Amit was out on bail, Kundan had been in jail since 2020.
Additional sessions judge Vinay Singh said that the way in which an illegal pistol linked to a 2007 case (which was decided in 2018) was shown as having been recovered from Kundan and Amit, made the entire incident “suspicious” and clearly pointed to the police falsely implicating them. The court said that a “detailed and high-level investigation” was necessary against the concerned police inspector and the entire police team that took part in the operation.
Judge Singh directed the Commissioner of Police, Kanpur to get a detailed and documented investigation of the entire case done either by himself or through a competent officer. A copy of the probe should be submitted to the court in three months. If, after the investigation, it appears that the police had illegally taken the pistol from the malkhana and filed a fake case, then an FIR will be lodged against the concerned officer and his team, the court said in its 25-page verdict, a copy of which is with The Wire.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
