Kanpur: An FIR has been registered against 12 retired policemen after a CB-CID inquiry found that a 1991 encounter was fabricated and evidence against 12 arrested men was false. The inquiry named 18 policemen, including the then station house officer, Vidyasagar Tripathi, and investigating officer Ramesh Chandra Bhatole. Six of them have since died.
The FIR was registered at Maharajpur police station on Saturday on a complaint by CB-CID inspector Sushil Kumar , 35 years after the alleged fake encounter. Police had claimed that on Aug 23, 1991, a team confronted men attempting to rob a DCM truck at Narval turn after they blocked the road with tree branches. They were booked under various IPC sections for fabricating evidence, filing false charges, wrongful confinement and causing hurt. Twelve men were arrested and jailed after police claimed to have recovered country-made pistols, cartridges and bombs from them. They were later taken to the police station and made to sign blank papers. Police later filed a chargesheet against the men, invoking IPC provisions related to preparation for and assembly to commit dacoity and attempted murder, as well as sections of the Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act.
The inquiry found that the men had been picked up from their homes while asleep, and licensed firearms belonging to their family members were falsely shown as weapons recovered from them.