5 Uttar Pradesh cops get 10-year rigorous jail term over custodial death

Five Uttar Pradesh policemen were given 10 years rigorous imprisonment in the custodial death of a 26-year-old man in 2006. A Delhi court, which sentenced the five policemen on Wednesday, had convicted them earlier this week.

“The court cannot lose sights of the fact that a precious human life has been lost while deceased was in the police custody without any evidence or reasonable suspicion against him,” additional sessions judge Sanjeev Kumar Malhotra said.

Sub inspectors Hindveer Singh and Mahesh Mishra, constables Pradeep, Pushpender and Haripal were found guilty under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 34 (criminal acts done by several persons with a common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

In January 2011, the Supreme Court transferred the case from Gautam Budh Nagar in UP to Delhi after Sonu’s father moved the apex court. While transferring the trial, the SC had observed that the manner in which the investigation was conducted after registration of the case unmistakably shows that ‘free and fair trial of the case will not be possible within the state more so because the accused are members of the police force’.

Sonu, also known as Somveer was allegedly abducted from his village Hazrat Pur (UP) on the suspicion of being involved in a robbery. According to complaint lodged by Sonu’s father, Dalbir Singh, in September 2006, Kunwar Pal, who worked as a property dealer with Sonu, came to his house with five police officials who were in plain clothes.

Pal had told Sonu that the five persons accompanying him had come to purchase a land and asked him to show the land to them. They took Sonu in a car in which they had come, according to the complaint.

Sonu was taken to a police station and implicated in a ‘ false case’ of robbery after which he was tortured to death by the officers. Sonu’s father claimed that his son was murdered by the police after being tortured and they had tried to pass it off as a suicide.

Kunwar Pal was sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹5000. The court found Pal guilty of offences of kidnapping and conniving with the other accused.

The court also said that the five cops made incorrect entries in the general diary to mislead investigators.

Pal was also ordered to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh to Sonu’s father. The two convicted sub inspectors were fined Rs 5 lakh and the three constables were fined Rs 2 lakh. The money will have to be paid to Sonu’s father within six month