The Hindu : National : 17 policemen get life term for fake killings

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Sunday, Nov 26, 2006
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National

17 policemen get life term for fake killings

Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: Twenty years after a fake police "encounter" that left 11 innocent persons dead in Karhana village of Basti district (now Sant Kabir Nagar district), a fast-track court in Basti has awarded life imprisonment to 17 policemen.

Among those sentenced are the then station house officers of the Dudhara and Mehndawal police stations, P.K. Rai (presently posted as Inspector in Anti-Corruption Organisation, Faizabad) and Ram Bishun Yadav, who led a team of 25 policemen to stage the fake encounter on the night of July 28-29, 1986, in the village situated about 60 km from the Paniara Assembly constituency in neighbouring Gorakhpur district. Paniara was the constituency represented in the Assembly by the then U.P. Chief Minister, Bir Bahadur Singh, of the Congress.

Significantly, the "encounter" took place at a time when U.P. had already earned infamy for several fake encounters staged by the police in the name of wiping out dacoits and criminals. This phase began in the early 1980s and continued for about five years.

Last `encounter'

In fact, the police team in a bid to legitimise the Karhana fake encounter had dubbed the deceased as dacoits and absconding under-trials.

However, the Karhana massacre turned out to be the last multiple fake killing following an initiative taken by the then Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly and present Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav.

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