13 police officers are among 21 accused sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Ramnarayan Vishwanath Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiya in an encounter on November 11, 2006
Mumbai: In a curious turn of events, a convict in the Lakhan Bhaiya encounter case has written to the Home Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, urging them to revoke the decision to dismiss the arrested police personnel from service. In the letter, the accused, who is currently out on furlough, also urged the government to continue with subsistence allowance for all the arrested cops, according to a report in an English daily.
The report said that of the 21 accused sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Ramnarayan Vishwanath Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiya in an encounter on November 11, 2006, 13 are police officers. The cops were arrested following complaints from Lakhan’s brother before the Bombay High Court alleging that the encounter carried out by D N Nagar and Versova cops was fake and designed to kill Lakhan who was booked in 10 cases, including five under charges of murder, the report added.
According to the report, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to find out the truth and 22 accused were arrested. On March 12, 2013, 21 of them were convicted for the encounter and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In the letter to the Deputy CM, the arrested accused stated, “In August 2013, then Home Minister R R Patil had announced that until the case proceedings are completed, the families of accused will not be asked to vacate police quarters and they will get allowance till the end. All the accused cops were getting the allowance as well.”
“In September 2014, the accused received a show-cause notice. Later, as per the order of the government in June 2015, all accused were suspended till the end of the proceedings of the case. However, the accused were getting subsistence allowance. In July 2020, the Mumbai police recommended to the government for dismissal of all the accused from service following which, in September 2021, orders were released about the dismissal,” the letter added.
The report further stated that the accused also mentioned that the National Human Rights Commission and Mumbai Suburban Collector had submitted a detailed report that the encounter was genuine, but the 2017 appeal by the accused for bail is pending in the Bombay HC and the appeal against the Session Court’s verdict is also pending since 2013.
