The Supreme Court today heard the bail application of a policeman serving life imprisonment for the 2009 fake encounter in Dehradun for killing a 20-year-old MBA student.
The Bench of Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Ajay Rastogi said, “You have not served the state the order dated January 13, 2021, on which you are relying.”
The order, dated January 13, 2021 said, “The Learned Additional Solicitor General has no objection to release the appellant purely on humanitarian grounds on interim bail.”
The Bench said, “We have received the order in the morning, just five minutes before the proceeding started, therefore, we need to give the state a chance to reply.”
Senior Advocate Harshvir Pratap Sharma appeared on behalf of the petitioner and submitted that the petitioner has been serving sentence for the past 11.5 years without any bail. He is here for interim bail. His mother is very sick.
To which the Court replied, “If we come on merits, your mother has been operated, discharged and everything is over.”
The Bench gave the chance to the state to file its reply and listed the matter for hearing on next Tuesday.
Eighteen policemen of the Uttarakhand police were sent up for trial consequent upon the killing of 20-year-old Ranbir Singh in Dehradun on July 3, 2009 in an encounter. The case of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to which the case was entrusted, was that the encounter was fake and that the 18 policemen conspired to murder him.
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The Delhi High Court, in 2014, confirmed the conviction for the offences under Sections 302 (Punishment for Murder) and 364 (Kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), read with Section 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) IPC.
Source: ILNS