PUCL April
2003
Ashiana
encounter fake, says CBI too
By Arun Kumar
Vice-President. PUCL Bihar
The Bihar PUCL inquiry team report (
PUCL Bulletin, Pg. 15, March 2003)
was confirmed by the CBI inquiry. The Ashiana Nagar encounter was a fake
one, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has found out after an
inquiry.
The agency has chargesheeted Shastrinagar police station sub-inspector
and the then acting officer-incharge Shamse Alam for killing three boys
from his service revolver inside the now infamous Sammelan Market on December
28. The boys, who were lying unconscious on the floor of the market due
to a murderous attack on them by the shopkeepers there, were shot dead
by Alam, says the chargesheet filed in the court of SDJM S K Pandey on
Sunday.
It says that after killing the three boys, Alam asked constable Arun Kumar
to flash a message on wireless that an encounter was going on in the Sammelan
Market.
Alam has also been accused of planting two countrymade pistols and ammunition
on the place of occurrence in a bid to show them as recovered from the
possession of the trio. Two witnesses, Rajiv and Ramesh Sahu, categorically
told the CBI that no such weapons had been recovered from the victims
- Vikas, Prashant and Himanshu.
The
two recovery witnesses said before the CBI team that Alam had procured
their signature on a blank paper.
Ballistic experts of the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in their report
have found that the four bullets were fired from the service revolver
of Alam. The report also confirmed that the victims were fired at from
very close range. The chargesheet also says that Alam filed a false report
before the chief judicial magistrate.
It further says that Sachivalaya DSP Ajit Kumar Sinha, following the wireless
message, reached the spot and inquired of the incident from Alam who at
that time "was in a victorious mood, revolver in hand". Sinha
was informed by Alam that the deceased were Ashok, Natwa and a member
of their gang.
The CBI has filed chargesheets in this case against Alam, constable Arun
Kumar, Sammelan Market shopowners including, STD booth owner Kamlesh Kumar
Gautam, Verma Lights proprietor Rajeev Kumar Ranjan, Soni Rajak of Soni
Dry Cleaners, Kumud Kumar of a CD shop, R K Mishra of an electronics shop
and Anil, brother-in-law of Kamlesh.
Taking cognizance of the case, the court has issued non-bailable warrants
of arrest against the accused. Two of the accused namely Shamse Alam and
K K Gautam were arrested earlier following resistance movement in Patna
and also in different parts of the state in the month of December '2002-January
'2003 in protest against a recent spate of fake killings in Bihar.