17 years since death, family of Bulandshahr man says yet to find closure, motive behind crime

The Delhi High Court Monday upheld the conviction and 10-year sentence awarded by a trial court to five UP police officers over the alleged custodial torture of Sonu in a case where he was accused of robbery. A division bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Anish Dayal said, “The (trial) court was right in drawing the presumption that the police was responsible for his abduction, illegal detention and death.” The court noted that the sequence of events and evidence on record suggested that the “deceased was subjected to custodial torture with the knowledge that it was likely to cause death…but without any intention to cause the death.”

Sonu’s eldest brother Ranvir, 48, remembers the fateful evening like it was yesterday. “They had come in a black car. It was around 6pm. We knew Kunwar Pal (one of the convicts), so we didn’t doubt them. Citing some land-related work, they called Sonu and took him away,” Ranvir recalled. “When Sonu did not return till late in the night, we started inquiring around…Around 3 am, we got a call from Khurja Dehat police station that Sonu had committed suicide at the Sector 20 police station in Noida…When we got his body from the mortuary, we spotted injury marks all over. That formed the basis of our complaint,” said the brother while pointing at the case files stacked up in several drawers in his room.

He said his brother had helped Kunwar Pal several times in the past. “Sonu had studied till Class 10. After that, he started running a grocery store. He regularly helped in agriculture work. Besides, he was into land buying and selling business with Kunwar Pal, but at a very minor level,” said Ranvir.

The family said they are not “fully satisfied” with the judgment. “We had sought for conviction under IPC section 302 (murder), but court convicted accused under section 304. We are thankful to the judiciary but the only anguish is that they have not been found guilty of murder. If the convicted persons file an appeal against the HC order, we will also put our original demand of conviction under section 302 before the Supreme Court,” said Dalbir.

Ranvir narrated the ordeal a common man has to face approaching police. “The common people are, in reality, afraid of the police… In these 17 years, I knocked every door of justice. I told each judge with my folded hands to give justice to my brother. We can’t even calculate the amount of money spent. We were lucky that we got a judgment in our favour. But not everyone can do it.” Said Dalbir: “As per the definition of the law, I have got justice, but I will not get peace.”