A court Friday convicted 17 out of the 18 Uttarakhand policemen accused of killing a 22-year-old MBA student in a staged shoot-out in Dehradun in 2009 for murder or conspiracy to murder.
Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge J.P.S. Malik convicted 18 policemen in the case, including one acquitted of the murder charge but convicted for falsifying records.
Jaspal Singh Gossain, the head operator at city control room, was convicted under section 218 IPC (public servant framing incorrect record) and was granted bail on a personal bond of Rs. 50,000 and a surety of like amount.
The 18 policemen were charge-sheeted by the CBI in connection with the Ranbir Singh case that rocked the hill state in July 2009.
They were arrested after evidence surfaced that Ranbir Singh, a resident of Ghaziabad, was allegedly gunned down in cold blood by Uttarakhand Police after being caught at Mohini Road where he and his companions were allegedly trying to commit some crime on July 3, 2009.
The convicted policemen are then inspector Santosh Jaiswal, sub-inspectors Gopal Dutt Bhatt, Rajesh Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Nitin Chauhan and Chandra Mohan, constables Ajeet Singh, Satbir Singh, Sunil Saini, Chander Pal, Saurabh Nautiyal, Nagendra Nath, Vikas Chandra Baluni, Sanjay Rawat, Mohan Singh Rana, Inder Bhan Singh and Manoj Kumar besides Gossain.
Out of the accused, seven - Jaiswal, Bhatt, Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Chauhan and Chandra Mohan and Ajeet Singh - were convicted on charges of murder, while the other ten policemen were convicted for conspiring to murder, and kidnapping to murder.
The court has fixed Saturday for hearing arguments on quantum of sentence. A person convicted for murder can get the death penalty or a minimum punishment of life imprisonment.
"Accused 1 to 7 (Jaiswal, Bhatt, Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Chauhan, Chandra Mohan and Ajeet Singh) are held guilty and convicted for substantive offence punishable under section 302 (murder) of the IPC read with section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and for substantive offence punishable under section 364 (kidnapping to murder) of IPC read with section 120B of IPC," the court said in its order.
"Accused 1 to 18 (excluding accused 17 Gossain) are held guilty and convicted for offence punishable under section 120B of IPC read with sections 364 and 302 of IPC," it added.
The trial had been transferred from Dehradun to Delhi on the orders of the Supreme Court on the plea of Ranbir's father Ravindra Singh.
