The Hindu : Front Page : Life term for 10 Delhi policemen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 25, 2007
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Life term for 10 Delhi policemen

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Dismissed Assistant Commissioner S.S. Rathi and nine other Delhi policemen, convicted in the 1997 Connaught Place shooting incident, were sentenced to life imprisonment by a court here on Wednesday.

Along with Rathi, inspector Anil Kumar, sub-inspector Ashok Rana, head constables Shiv Kumar, Tejpal Singh and Mahavir Singh, and constables Sumer Singh, Subhash Chand, Sunil Kumar and Kothari Ram (all since dismissed) were sentenced for murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy.

The court sentenced all the convicts to seven-year rigorous imprisonment for giving false evidence. Rathi and Anil Kumar were also sentenced to seven-year RI for destruction of evidence. All sentences will run concurrently.

Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar said the convicts had acted on a pre-meditated scheme. They either wanted to kill Mohammad Yaseen with a view to getting rid of a hardened criminal or sought to get out-of-turn promotions.

Earlier in the day, the prosecution demanded the death penalty for Rathi, Kothari Ram and Mahavir Singh. Special Public Prosecutor S.K. Saxena said it was a cold-blooded murder which took place on the instructions of Rathi. He also demanded the death penalty for Kothari and Mahavir as their bullets, fired from an AK-47 assault rifle, killed two innocent businessmen Pradeep Goel and Jagjit Singh. Defence lawyer R.K. Naseem pleaded that all convicts had good service records and a few of them had even received honours.

The court heard the testimonies of 74 witnesses, including Yaseen It also relied on the photographs given by two photographers of The Statesman, which provided key evidence to counter the self-defence theory.

On March 31, 1997, a Crime Branch team led by Rathi was apparently following Yaseen, who was travelling in a blue Maruti Esteem car. But the car which they cornered and fired at near Statesman House had the two businessmen sitting inside.

The police claimed that the occupants had fired at them and they retaliated in self-defence. Actually, they planted a pistol and cartridges in the vehicle. But a CBI probe revealed that the pistol had not been used for long.

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