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LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday convicted and awarded rigorous imprisonment of seven years to 43 UP policemen for shooting dead 10 men in a “cold-blooded” extra-judicial murder in Pilibhit in 1991 on the suspicion that they were Khalistani terrorists.
“It is not the duty of police officers to kill accused merely because he/she is a dreaded criminal. Undoubtedly, police have to arrest the accused and put them up for trial,” the HC said, but gave the cops some reprieve by setting aside a 2016 order of the Lucknow CBI court that had convicted them of murder.
A bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Saroj Yadav held the 43 guiltyunder Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC, which carries a less harsh punishment than murder.
“No doubt, the appellants exceeded the powers given to them by law, and they caused the death of the deceased by doing an act which they, ingood faith, believed to be lawful and necessary for the due discharge of their duty. In such circumstances, the offence that was committed by the appellants was culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” the bench said.
The CBI court had convicted 47 cops and sentenced them to life imprisonment. They filed appeals against their conviction. Four cops died in the interim period.
The CBI had investigated the case on the orders of the Supreme Court and said the motive behind the killings was to earn awards and recognition for killing “terrorists”. The case dates back to a time when the state’s Terai region witnessed a surge in militancy-related cases.
The massacre happened on July 12, 1991, when a police posse stopped a luxury buscarrying Sikh pilgrims and singled out 10 passengers to get off — based apparently on intelligence inputs. The charge-sheet said those men were taken to a jungle, shot in “cold blood”, and the cops claimed the next day that 10 Khalistani terrorists had been killed.
The HC said, “The claim of the appellants that they killed ten terrorists in selfdefence does not corroborate with the medical evidence. ”
However, it also picked out gaps in the prosecution’s arguments. “The prosecution failed to prove the facts that the police personnel had kidnapped or abducted 10-11 Sikh persons and after that by making criminal conspiracy with common intention, bifurcated them in three groups and killed them at three separate places. ”
“It is not the duty of police officers to kill accused merely because he/she is a dreaded criminal. Undoubtedly, police have to arrest the accused and put them up for trial,” the HC said, but gave the cops some reprieve by setting aside a 2016 order of the Lucknow CBI court that had convicted them of murder.
A bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Saroj Yadav held the 43 guiltyunder Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC, which carries a less harsh punishment than murder.
“No doubt, the appellants exceeded the powers given to them by law, and they caused the death of the deceased by doing an act which they, ingood faith, believed to be lawful and necessary for the due discharge of their duty. In such circumstances, the offence that was committed by the appellants was culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” the bench said.
The CBI court had convicted 47 cops and sentenced them to life imprisonment. They filed appeals against their conviction. Four cops died in the interim period.
The CBI had investigated the case on the orders of the Supreme Court and said the motive behind the killings was to earn awards and recognition for killing “terrorists”. The case dates back to a time when the state’s Terai region witnessed a surge in militancy-related cases.
The massacre happened on July 12, 1991, when a police posse stopped a luxury buscarrying Sikh pilgrims and singled out 10 passengers to get off — based apparently on intelligence inputs. The charge-sheet said those men were taken to a jungle, shot in “cold blood”, and the cops claimed the next day that 10 Khalistani terrorists had been killed.
The HC said, “The claim of the appellants that they killed ten terrorists in selfdefence does not corroborate with the medical evidence. ”
However, it also picked out gaps in the prosecution’s arguments. “The prosecution failed to prove the facts that the police personnel had kidnapped or abducted 10-11 Sikh persons and after that by making criminal conspiracy with common intention, bifurcated them in three groups and killed them at three separate places. ”
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