On 18 December, a local court in Ghaziabad directed the police to register FIRs against the 12 policemen of Vijay Nagar and Sahibabad police stations in two separate alleged ‘fake encounter’ cases.
In the first case, the Petitioner, Yasmeen in the Vijay Nagar, stated that her 3 brothers – Farman, Sazeb, and Aamir were ‘falsely implicated’ in an attempt to murder case by two locals – Moni and Anuj on June 17. Yasmeen and Aamir went to the police station on June 27 for the latter to surrender, but the police purportedly said that he was the ‘most wanted’ and could be ‘arrested in an encounter.’ She further claimed that a few days later, while Aamir and Yasmeen were returning from a court, the police ‘abducted him and fled in a car.’
Subsequently, he was shown arrested in an exchange of fire at around 2 pm and suffered a leg injury. The Police claimed that he was trying to flee after shooting one of his acquaintances, carrying a reward of Rs 15,000.
In the second case, the petitioner, Mohsin Khan in Sahibabad stated that FIRs were registered against his brother, Sanjeed and his house help. Further, when Sanjeed went to a police station to surrender himself, the police denied to take him into custody. However, both were allegedly abducted by cops on September 4. Sanjeed was allegedly shot in his leg and later was sent to jail.
However, the Uttar Pradesh police and government have denied allegations that the encounters were staged and claim police opened fire only in self-defense or in gun battles.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate Ekta Singh authorized to register FIRs against the then SHO of Vijay Nagar Shyamveer Singh, sub-inspector Kaveesh Kumar and Brahmpal Singh and constables Vipin and Manoj Baliyan, besides two-three unidentified cops in Vijay Nagar case. Subsequently, an FIR against Moni and Anuj would also be registered, who falsely implicated the brothers. The bench further stated to register an FIR against sub-inspectors Shailendra Singh and Sallauddin, constables Saurabh Solanki, Shamshad, Lalit Kumar, Sanjay, and Sanjeev Gupta and Nikhil Kumar in Sahibabad case.
