CP Shooting case: HC issues notice to CBI

The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to CBI on an appeal filed by suspended inspector Anil Kumar sentenced in the fake encounter case.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice to CBI on an appeal filed by suspended police inspector Anil Kumar, sentenced to life along with the then ACP S S Rathi and eight others, for killing two businessmen in a fake encounter at Connaught Place in Delhi ten years ago.

A Division Bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice B N Chaturvedi sought reply from the investigating agency by November 13.

Challenging the trial court’s judgement, Kumar denied that he had fired at the victims on March 31, 1997.

Arguing before the Bench, Kumar’s counsel Sandeep Sethi claimed that the occupants of the car, killed in the incident, had fired three rounds at the policemen, who had tried to nab them.

Maintaining that the suspended police officer had followed all the instructions given by Rathi, he said there was no evidence to establish that the convict had hatched any criminal conspiracy to eliminate the Haryana-based businessmen Pradeep Goyal and Jagjit Singh.

According to the CBI, it was Inspector Kumar, who had fired indiscriminately at the victims, resulting in their death on the fateful day.

The court on October 29 had also issued a notice to the CBI, admitting an appeal against Rathi’s conviction and sentence in the shooting case.

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Rathi’s counsel had claimed that his client was near Mother Dairy in east Delhi, which was far from the place of occurrence, at the time of incident, and he had joined the police team, assigned for the encounter, much later.

Ten policemen including the then ACP Rathi were sentenced to life imprisonment on October 24 for murdering the two businessmen at Barakhamba Road here on March 31, 1997.

A trial court, on October 16, had held the ten policemen guilty under various Sections of the IPC.