A court in Chhattisgarh's Janjgir-Champa district has awarded life imprisonment to four policemen, including a then station house officer (SHO), in connection with a case of custodial death.
Special judge for SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act court Neeta Yadav Tuesday convicted Jitendra Singh Rajput (30), SHO, Mulmula police station and constables Sunil Kumar Dhruv (28), Dilharan Miri (26), and Home Guard Rajesh Kumar (49).
They were held guilty under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) and sentenced to life imprisonment, special public prosecutor Dhiraj Kumar Shukla said Wednesday.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on each of them.
If the fine is not paid, the convicts will have to undergo additional imprisonment of one month, Shukla said.
On September 17, 2016, Satish Norge (35), a native of Nariyara village in the district, had a scuffle with the operator of a power sub-station after a power outage in Norge's area, Sagarpara.
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Devendra Kumar Sahu, the operator, lodged a complaint against Norge at Mulmula police station.
Rajput and the other three accused brought Norge to the police station and thrashed him brutally. He died at a community health centre in Pamgarh during treatment.
The policemen were booked for murder and also under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as Norge belonged to an SC community.