Ranchi, Nov. 11: The CBI has sought the state government’s sanction to prosecute a police inspector posted in East Singhbhum district in connection with an alleged “fake” encounter in 1995. Four youths were gunned down in an encounter allegedly “staged” by inspector Abhay Narayan Singh, who was then with the Patna police. However, the bodies of two of the victims are still untraced.
“The agency has sought sanction to prosecute the officer. The official process is underway and the government is likely to clear it. Once the CBI gets the nod, the officer may be placed under suspension or arrested to face trial in the designated CBI court,” said a police officer.
The agency was handed over the probe by the Bihar government after the family members of the slain youths alleged that the police had murdered them in “cold-blood”. The CBI has already filed a chargesheet in the case.
Altogether seven policemen including Singh, now posted as the officer in-charge of Bistupur police station, have been named accused by the CBI.
Others against whom the chargesheet has been filed include a Bihar deputy superintendent of police Raj Kumar Yadav, inspectors Lalchand Ram and A. Tigga, assistant sub-inspector Vibha Kumari and constable Ramakant Singh.
According to the chargesheet, on September 3, the Kotwali police raided the house of one Ram Govind Singh near Amrapali Cinema Hall in Danapur and arrested them.
Those arrested were identified as Ashok Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Rajesh Kumar and Yogendra Singh.
The raid was led by R.K. Yadav, who was the then the officer in-charge of the Kotwali police station, while Abhay Narayan Singh and the other policemen were part of the raiding team.
The CBI gave the account of eyewitnesses, who claimed that all the four young men were taken in a police van and their hands tied up.
However, the Patna police later claimed that while Rajesh Kumar and another young man Ramesh Sharma were killed in an encounter with Yadav on September 4, Yogendra Singh was shown to be killed along with a gangster Dilip Paswan on September 8, 1995 in an encounter with the then officer in-charge of Phulwari Sharif police station.
