Register FIR in fake encounter, HC tells police

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has directed the Palghar police to register a FIR in the fake encounter of notorious criminal Joginder Rana at Nalasopara.

A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharti Dangre was hearing a petition filed by the deceased’s brother, Surendra Rana, through his lawyer Dutta Mane, alleging that on July 23, 2018, Joginder was killed by two constables attached to the Palghar crime branch in a fake enc-ounter. Surendra also sought a CBI or SIT investigation into the case.

At last hearing, the court perused the entire affidavit filed by the superintendent of poli-ce, Palghar, Gaurav Singh, stating that Man-gesh Chavan and Manoj Sakpal were attached to the crime branch and had fired at Joginder in self-defence on July 23 this year after he attacked them with a knife.

The court during the hearing perused the medical certificates of both Chavan and Sakpal and found that there was a discrepancy in the medical report. The court also considered the photographs submitted by the petitioner in which the two constables were seen standing beside the body with one of them tying his shoelaces.

The court then said that if the encounter was fake, a FIR be registered against the constables.