Custodial death case: Delhi HC upholds-10 year sentence awarded to five UP cops

New Delhi [India], June 26 : The Delhi High Court on Monday upheld the ten-year jail term awarded to five Uttar Pradesh Police personnel in the custodial death case of a youth Sonu alias Somveer in 2006.

The convicts had challenged their conviction and sentence awarded by the trial court in March 2019 by the Karkardooma Court, Delhi.

The case was transferred to Delhi by the order of the Supreme Court on a petition moved by the family of the deceased.

The division bench comprising Justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal upheld the trial court order awarding a ten-year sentence to five of the convicts.

The high court was hearing appeals filed by convicted Police persons Hindveer Singh, Mahesh Mishra, Pradeep Kumar, Pushpendra Kumar, Haripal Singh, and Kunwar Pal Singh. Three appeals were also filed by the father of the deceased seeking conversion of conviction in 302 IPC.

"The Learned Trial Court has rightly convicted the said accused for the offences and the appeals by the accused are, therefore, dismissed and the conviction and sentence awarded by the learned trial court are upheld," the bench observed in the judgement passed on June 26.

The high court rejected the submissions of the accused and said, "What had happened to the victim after his arrest/abduction by the accused persons was within the special knowledge of the accused persons and had not provided a believable explanation, the court was right in drawing the presumption that the police was responsible for his abduction, illegal detention and death."

The division bench also upheld a three-year sentence awarded to an Inspector for kidnapping the deceased.

However, it dismissed the appeal against the acquittal of Vinod Kumar Pandey filed by the complainant.

The high court also dismissed appeals moved by the father of the deceased seeking conviction under section 302 (murder) IPC. The court said that there was no evidence to show intention to kill the deceased.

The bench said, "Considering that there is no evidence on record to prove that the

accused police officers caused injuries to Sonu with the intention that in all likelihood death will ensure, thereby causing the murder of the deceased, it would be difficult to reach a conclusion that the accused police officers would be guilty of an offence punishable under Section 302 IPC."

The said sequence of events and evidence on record suggests that the deceased was subjected to custodial torture with the knowledge that it was likely to cause the death of the deceased but without any intention to cause the death, the bench observed in the judgment.

The high court said, "Therefore, the act of causing bodily injury, as is likely to cause death, would make the accused guilty of an offence punishable under Section 304 IPC Part I and liable for a sentence for Rigorous Improvement (RI) 10 years."

Thus, the appeals filed by the complainant for converting the convictions for an offence punishable under Section 304 IPC to Section 302 IPC cannot be sustained and therefore are dismissed, the high court held.

An FIR was registered under Section 302 IPC at PS Sector-20, Noida, UP upon the written complaint made by Dalbir Singh (father of the deceased) on September 2, 2006.

It was alleged that on September 1, 2006, at 6 pm, the Noida Police in civil dress took away his son Sonu alias Somveer from the village.

On September 2, 2006, in the morning, he received information from Police Station Khurja Dehat that Sonu had committed suicide in PS Sector-20, Noida, UP, he alleged.

When he reached the place of the post-mortem along with his co-villagers, he saw various injuries on the body of Sonu, including a burn mark near his ear.

Dalbir Singh said he had a serious apprehension that his son was murdered by the police after being tortured and it had been given a colour of suicide.

After an investigation by CBCID, a chargesheet was filed against the accused persons, who were police officials stated that six accused had taken Sonu aged 26 years at about 6:30 p.m. on September 1, 2006, in civil dress in connivance with Inspector Kunwar Pal Singh, without any justifiable reason from his house and brought to Police Chowki Nithari, Sector-31, Noida in their private vehicle in relation to crime case registered under Section 392 IPC at Sector-39, Noida.

Later, on September 2, 2006, he was lodged in the locker of Sector-20 police station, Noida, at 3:25 a.m. Due to false implication in the robbery case and on account of atrocities caused by the police, Sonu due to physical and unbearable mental stress, allegedly committed suicide and was found hanging in the lockup at about 5.30 am, the chargesheet alleged.

The chargesheet was filed under sections 342/320/306/167/218/34 IPC. Kunwar Pal Singh was found involved with police officials in torturing Sonu due to his interest in the transaction of commission of property deals.

The chargesheet was, therefore, filed against him under the same provisions. On December 19, 2011, charges were framed against all the accused persons under Sections 302/364/120-B/34 IPC and under Sections 167/220/34 IPC against accused persons.