A sessions court in Mumbai Friday acquitted all the eight accused, including five policemen of the Haryana police, booked for the alleged fake encounter of Gurgaon-based gangster Sandeep Gadoli at a hotel in Mumbai in 2016. The accused were facing charges for offences including murder and criminal conspiracy.
On February 7, 2016, Sandeep Gadoli, was shot dead in an alleged encounter with a team of the Gurgaon Police at Airport Metro hotel near the international airport in Mumbai. The Gurgaon police had claimed that Gadoli, was on the run, wanted in over 40 cases, including ten cases of murder. The police had claimed that he had shot at them when they approached him in the hotel room of and that they had then fired in self-defence, leading to his death.
The initial FIR, filed by the Gurgaon police, accused Gadoli of attempt to murder. Gadoli’s family, however, claimed that he was killed due to his rivalry with gangster Binder Gujjar and that the conspiracy was planned between the policemen and Gujjar’s brother, Manoj. The family refused to accept his body lying in a hospital morgue in Mumbai. They sought a judicial inquiry as well as filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, which on February 15, 2016, directed the Mumbai police to set up a special investigation team to probe the allegations.
Subsequently, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Mumbai police claimed that they had forensic tests had confirmed as genuine CCTV footage that purportedly showed two policemen at the door of Gadoli’s room, not helping the gangster who is seen writhing in pain on the floor for almost 20 minutes after being shot, planting a weapon on him and destroying some CCTV cameras. Based on this, the Mumbai police booked members of the team led by sub-inspector Pradyuman Yadav, claiming that the encounter was fake.
The other accused booked included Gadoli’s alleged girlfriend, 18-year-old Divya Pahuja, who the Mumbai police claimed was giving the accused policemen information about their whereabouts and Gadoli’s location, as she was accompanying him from Gurgaon to Mumbai. The police claimed that Divya was giving information through her mother Sonia, who she was in constant calls with, and that information was passed through code words like dawaai and khaana (medicine and food).
The police also arrested another gangster Binder Gujjar, claiming his involvement in the conspiracy.
During the trial, Yadav and the policemen had said that they had been tracking Gadoli’s whereabouts as he was a gangster with a serious criminal record. He had said that teams were formed to trace Gadoli and they had reached the Airport Metro hotel in Mumbai, where they found that Gadoli was living under the false identity of “Rishabh Singh”.
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They told the court that they had information that he was to check out soon and they entered his room after taking assistance of the hotel staff. Two cops entered the room with their service revolvers and asked him to surrender but Gadoli instead fired at them, the accused told court. In the scuffle, while one cop Vikram Singh suffered an injury on his foot and another policeman Paramjeet Ahlawat, got an injury on his forehead, and Gadoli sustained three bullet injuries and subsequently died. The policemen denied any conspiracy in the death, claiming that there is no proof about
“The Accused No.2 (Vikram Singh) suffered firearm injury in his leg i.e. the left foot and the Accused No.7 (Ahlawat) suffered firearm injuries to his forehead, which injury never occurs in a case of fake encounter, wherein the Police Personnel suffer self-inflicted injuries, usually in their limbs, but never to areas like the head, as the injury is fatal and life-threatening. The Accused Persons more particularly the Accused Nos.1 and 2, even called for an ambulance to treat the victim as soon as he was shot, for taking him to a hospital, which never happens in a fake encounter case,” the policemen told court in their final submissions. They had also claimed they had informed the local police in Mumbai and sought their assistance but since Gadoli was to leave the city, they had to apprehend him immediately. The accused had also claimed many procedural lapses in the probe.
The prosecution had claimed that call data records and CCTV footage from the hotel showed the involvement of the accused policemen in the offence, citing proof including the destruction of the CCTV cameras. Nearing the end of the trial however the state government ordered the removal of the special public prosecutor Amin Solkar appointed in the case, without giving any reason. Solkar had last year moved a plea seeking to add senior officials of the Gurgaon police as accused which was rejected by the court.
Who are the accused?
PSI Pradyuman Yadav: Posted in crime branch, had joined Haryana Police in 2010.
Vikram Rajbir Singh: Constable with Haryana police
Jitendra Yadav: constable with Haryana police
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Divya Pahuja (dead): alleged girlfriend of Gadoli, murdered in 2024, months after she was granted bail
Sonia Pahuja: Diya’s mother, claimed to have passed on information from Divya to the police
Deepak Kakran: constable
Paramjeet Ahlawat: constable
Virendra Kumar and Binder Gujjar: gangster booked for conspiracy
