Relief to 43 policemen from Allahabad High Court, instead of life imprisonment, now 7 years sentence

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday commuted the life sentence awarded to 43 policemen in the 1991 Pilibhit fake encounter case to seven years of Tough imprisonment. The court has convicted 43 policemen of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the encounter case of 10 Sikhs.

The court set aside the conviction of the police personnel by a trial court under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, holding that the case fell under Exception 3 to Section 303 of the IPC, which provides that if the offender commits murder, it is not culpable homicide. The Lucknow bench directed that the convicts serve their sentence in jail and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each on them. The bench convicted all the 43 policemen under IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). A division bench of Justices Ramesh Sinha and Saroj Yadav said, the police have to arrest the accused persons and prosecute them. He said that it is not the duty of the police officers to kill the accused just because he is a dreaded criminal.

The bench said, "There is no doubt that the appellants exceeded the powers conferred on them by law and caused the death of the deceased by doing an act which they believed to be lawful and necessary for the discharge of their duty in good faith. In the circumstances, the offense committed by the appellants was culpable homicide not amounting to murder."

Let us tell you that in 1991, ten Sikhs were killed in an alleged encounter by the policemen, calling them terrorists of the Khalistan Liberation Front. The trial court, finding these policemen guilty of murder, had sentenced them to life imprisonment on April 4, 2016.

{ASHNA )