2006 Custodial death case: Delhi High Court upholds 10-year imprisonment of 5 UP Police officers

The High Court of Delhi on Monday upheld the 10-year imprisonment awarded by a trial court to five officers of the Uttar Pradesh Police department for custodial death of a 26-year-old man in 2006. 

Questioning the Police’s narrative that the accused had committed suicide, the High Court found that the records were fabricated. 

The Court further found it ‘hard to accept’ that the deceased had committed suicide and then sustained such injuries during the process of being saved by trained police personnel.

However, it dismissed the petition filed by the family of the deceased to convert the conviction of the accused policemen from Section 304 (causing death by negligence) to Section 302 (murder) of IPC.

In March 2019, Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Kumar Malhotra of Karkardooma Courts had convicted the policemen for custodial death of one Sonu in 2006. The cops were accused of falsely implicating Sonu in a robbery case by forging incorrect entries and torturing him to death.

The accused were identified as Sub Inspectors Hindveer Singh and Mahesh Mishra, along with Constables Pradeep, Pushpender and Haripal Singh. Senior Inspector Vinod Pandey, who was also an accused in the case, was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The ASJ convicted the accused under Sections 365 (abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 220 (confinement by person having authority who knows that he is acting contrary to law), 167 (public servant framing and incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 34 (criminal acts done by several persons with a common intention) of IPC. 

The trial court further directed the Director General of Uttar Pradesh Police to take disciplinary action against Inspector Deepak Chaturvedi and constable Manoj Kumar, who were present on the day as Station Officer and GD writer, respectively. 

They recorded wrong entries in the GD Register and helped with disappearance of evidence. Earlier, the Supreme Court had transferred the case from a Sessions Court in Uttar Pradesh to a Delhi court, noting that a fair trial in the state would not be possible.

The Sessions Court had earlier said, “It has been duly proved beyond reasonable doubt that the five accused policemen… in connivance with Kunwar Pal Singh (middleman) and in furtherance of their common intention abducted Sonu from his native village Hazrat Pur (in Uttar Pradesh) and maliciously confined him till he was declared dead knowingly that by confining him illegally they were acting contrary to law as they were apprehending his involvement in a robbery case without any evidence or reasonable suspicion against him.

In September 2006, Kunwar Pal, a property dealer who worked with Sonu, came to his house in Hazratpur village (UP) with five police officials in civil dress. Pal told Sonu that these five men were interested in buying land and that Sonu must show them. When Sonu stepped into their car to show them the land, he was forcibly taken to the police station. 

According to a complaint lodged by Sonu’s father, he was taken into custody on the false implication of a robbery case. During the trial, the accused denied all the charges against them. Sonu’s medical report showed bruise marks on his abdomen and elbow and abrasions on his knee and shoulder.

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