IPS officer,10 cops booked for ‘fake’ encounter

The other policemen include four sub-inspectors and six constables. Victim Mukul Gupta (28) was a native of Badaun district,who worked in a medical firm in Bareilly and stayed in Sanjay Nagar.

A four-member CBI team,led by an inspector,is at present camping in Bareilly. They have recorded the statements of a few witnesses and also visited the encounter spot.

According to the local police,on June 30,2007,they had received information that some people who planned to commit a bank robbery would pass through Fatehganj area on a Tata Sumo. The police team laid a trap. Around 10.30 am,it spotted a Tata Sumo coming from the opposite direction. When the police team waived to stop the vehicle,it drove away.

The police chased the vehicle and claim that at Fatehganj railway crossing,some men stepped out of the vehicle and fired at them. In retaliation,the police also fired — killing Mukul. His associate Karan Mishra alias Pankaj alias Iliyas,and a third man,Vicky Sharma,were arrested. The fourth man,however,managed to escape. He was later identified as Prem Shankar.

The police said Mukul had hired the vehicle for committing the crime. According to the police,Vicky Sharma told them that he had no connection with the other men in the vehicle and had been forced at gunpoint to drive the vehicle. The police later released him.

Pankaj,a rickshawpuller from Bareilly’s Rithora area,was booked on charges of attempt to murder. He has been also booked under Arms Act,and is now out on bail. The police said that Pankaj had told them during questioning that the man who escaped was known to Mukul and he had met him for the first time that day. The police,however,have not revealed how Mukul and Pankaj knew each other.

Mukul’s father Brijendra Kumar Gupta,a retired government officer,said: “My son was not a criminal. Have you ever heard that criminals hired a vehicle to commit a bank robbery?” Gupta said he later got to know that the policemen had stage-managed the encounter to win rewards.

After the encounter,Mukul’s family approached the district police and the administration to lodge an FIR against the policemen. When they got no response,Gupta moved the court of Bareilly CJM but his plea was rejected. He then moved the Allahabad High Court,which directed the CJM to pass an order for lodging of an FIR.

On the direction of the Bareilly CJM,the police on September 11,2008 registered an FIR against 11 policemen,including the IPS officer,and started investigation. Later,Gupta came to know that the police were preparing to file a final report in the court and approached the High Court again on November 12,2008.

On May 15,2009,the High Court directed the police not to submit any report in the court till further order. On February 26,2010,the court granted Gupta’s request for a CBI probe. On June 17,the CBI registered a case.

Gupta’s lawyer Anil Kumar Singh said they had informed the High Court that since the accused were senior to the investigating officer,an impartial probe would not be possible by the local police.