LUCKNOW The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has ordered a CBI inquiry into an alleged police encounter in Shravasti at night in May last year, observing that the FIR contained several glaring inconsistencies and the station house officer (SHO) appeared to have given a false narration of the incident.
The SHO had claimed that he had fired two shots in self-defence at Chhotkau alias Allauddin, who was accused of abducting a seven-year-old girl in his e-rickshaw, after merely hearing the sound of a weapon being loaded by him and the bullets struck both his legs.
Justice Subhash Vidyarthi passed the order on August 13, uploaded recently on a criminal revision petition filed by Chotkau Alias Allauddin.
The court asked the CBI to verify the allegations in the FIR and assess the shooting capability of SHO Ashwini Kumar Dubey, including whether he could accurately fire a 9mm service pistol from 15 metres at night merely by hearing the sound of a weapon being loaded.
The court directed that the inquiry report be submitted preferably within three months.
Allauddin’s counsel Nadeem Murtaza argued that the police version was difficult to accept as the FIR claimed 13 police personnel were travelling in a single government vehicle before splitting into three teams, while no other vehicle was mentioned.
Later, a 10-member police team also allegedly joined them, taking the total number of police personnel at the encounter site to 23.
Nadeem had questioned how 23 armed policemen could fail to stop a person travelling in an e-rickshaw.
He also pointed out that it was strange that the entire police team allegedly went into hiding and sought additional reinforcement against a person carrying a country-made pistol and only two cartridges.
Hearing the matter, the court questioned the alleged confession attributed to Allauddin after he was shot.
It noted that the original FIR concerning the kidnapping of the seven-year-old girl, registered within 61 minutes of the alleged incident, did not mention rape, bleeding or injuries to the victim, although these details subsequently appeared in the alleged confession.
The court said this prima facie indicated that a false confession may have been recorded.
The bench further observed that the SHO had apparently tried to mislead the court regarding the firing.
The court questioned his claim that he had accurately fired at the accused from about 15 metres at night merely after hearing the sound of a weapon being loaded. It also questioned the explanation regarding the size of the wounds in relation to the 9mm bullet allegedly fired from his service pistol.
The HC said the procedure prescribed for investigation of police encounters involving death or grievous injury appeared not to have been followed in the present case.
Besides this, the court stayed the proceedings in the Shravasti sessions court against Allauddin and listed the matter for November 23.
