Uttarakhand shootout: HC notice to CBI on convicts' pleas

The Delhi High Court Monday issued notice to the CBI on the appeals of 13 personnel of Uttarakhand Police, who challenged the trial court's verdict sentencing them to life imprisonment for killing a 22-year-old MBA student in a staged shootout in Dehradun in 2009.

A division bench of Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice Vipin Sanghi also sought the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) response to the bail pleas of the convicts.

The trial court June 9 awarded life imprisonment to 17 of the 18 police officials for the staged shooting of Ranbir Singh and for destroying evidence.

Those who moved the high court against their conviction and sentencing were then inspector Santosh Jaiswal, sub-inspectors Gopal Dutt Bhatt, Rajesh Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Nitin Chauhan and Chandra Mohan Singh Rawat, all convicted on charges of murder, and constables Sunil Saini, Mohan Singh Rana, Nagender Rathi, Ajeet Singh, Inder Bhan Singh, Satbir Singh, and Vikas Baluni, all convicted for conspiracy to murder.

The Ranbir Singh case had rocked the state of Uttarakhand after a team of Uttarakhand Police gunned down the MBA graduate from Ghaziabad in cold blood July 3, 2009.

The policemen claimed that Ranbir - along with his friends - was involved in an extortion racket and was trying to commit a crime when they were caught at Mohini Road. It was alleged that the boy was killed while trying to escape.