Bhojpur fake encounter, 1996 : Two decades on, CBI court finds four policemen guilty

Stating that the four officers — Bhojpur police SHO Lal Singh, sub-inspector Joginder Singh, and constables Surya Bhan and Subhash Chand — were guilty of murder, providing false evidence and destroying evidence, said CBI Special Judge Rajesh Chaudhary, while maintaining that the arguments regarding their sentence will take place on February 22.

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“Justice has been done. In the CBI investigation, not a single criminal complaint against any of the four men was found. They were killed for no reason. The people responsible for the brutality have been held responsible by the court. Their families have been given justice after a great amount of suffering for 20 years,” said public prosecutor Rajan Dahiya.

Dahiya also said while an internal police inquiry had maintained that these four men —Jasbir (23), Jalaluddin (17), Ashok (17) and Pravesh (17) — were criminals, the evidence produced by them did not match their claims. “Police had claimed that these men had countrymade pistols, which they had fired from, and these weapons were shown as recovery items. However, no bullets collected as evidence from the crime scene matched these weapons,” Dahiya said.

Further, one bullet recovered from Jasbir’s body was found to be fired from an IPS officer’s official revolver. The Circle Officer (DSP) of Modi Nagar at the time, Jyoti Belur, resigned shortly after the incident and moved to the UK.

“Whether the bullet was fired by her or if her weapon was misused is yet to be ascertained. In 2007, the court had summoned her. She is now a UK citizen and has not appeared before the court. She had approached the High Court and the Supreme Court, where her pleas have been dismissed,” Dahiya said.

“The first chargesheet in the case was filed in Dehradun special court in 2001 and, in 2004, the case was transferred to Ghaziabad and the trial began,” Dahiya said.