The Delhi High Court has affirmed a trial court's decision to sentence five Uttar Pradesh Police officers to ten years of imprisonment for their involvement in the custodial death of Sonu, a 26-year-old youth.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal also upheld the conviction and three-year sentence of an inspector for kidnapping Sonu in the same case.
Rejecting the police officers' claim that Sonu died by suicide, the court pointed out serious inconsistencies in the records and found evidence of fabricated and manipulated general diary entries. Considering the injuries on Sonu's body, the court expressed doubt that he could have committed suicide and sustained such injuries while being saved by trained police personnel.
The court stated that the discrepancies indicated an attempt by all the police officials from PS Sector-20 (Noida) involved in the case to deny their presence after Sonu's arrest. It concluded that their conduct suggested an unfavorable situation at the police station during that time.
The court further held that the accused police officers had special knowledge about what had happened to Sonu after his arrest and abduction. Due to their failure to provide a credible explanation, the court agreed with the trial court's presumption that the police were responsible for Sonu's abduction, illegal detention, and subsequent death.
Sonu was apprehended by plainclothes policemen on September 1, 2006, and taken to Police Chowki Nithari, Sector 31 Noida, in a private vehicle. He was later lodged in the locker of Police Station Sector 20, Noida. The police claimed that Sonu was wanted for questioning in a robbery case. However, investigations revealed that the police had subjected him to atrocities, leading to his suicide due to physical and mental stress.
The case was transferred from Gautam Budh Nagar to Delhi by the Supreme Court, which acknowledged that a fair trial would not be possible in Uttar Pradesh since the accused were members of the state's police force.
In 2019, sub-inspectors Hindveer Singh and Mahesh Mishra, along with constables Pradeep Kumar, Pushpender Kumar, and Haripal Singh, were convicted and sentenced to ten years of imprisonment under Section 304 (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), among other sections. Inspector Kunwar Pal Singh received a three-year sentence. Sub-inspector Vinod Kumar Pandey was acquitted due to lack of evidence.
After considering the case and the evidence, the Delhi High Court has now upheld the trial court's judgment. It also dismissed the complainant's plea to convert the convictions from Section 304 (death by negligence) to Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.
The court stated that the sequence of events and the evidence presented indicated that the deceased had been subjected to custodial torture, which resulted in his death. However, it found no evidence to prove that the accused police officers intended to cause Sonu's death. Therefore, they were held guilty under Section 304 IPC and sentenced to ten years of rigorous imprisonment.
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