Lucknow: A Lucknow court has ordered a probe and filing of an FIR into an alleged encounter death of a man, who was accused of a murder.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Sushil Kumari has directed the Hazratganj police to lodge an FIR over the alleged encounter death of Girdhari Vishwakarma on February 15, after his remand to the police custody by her court, following his arrest.
Girdhari a.k.a ‘Doctor’ was arrested for allegedly gunning down a gangster Ajit Singh in the city’s posh Gomti Nagar area on January 6.
CJM Sushila Kumari on Thursday ordered a probe into Giridhari’s death on a plea by advocate Sarvjeet Yadav, who had earlier represented Giridhari as his defence counsel.
“There are clear guidelines of the Supreme Court that in a case of a police encounter, an FIR should be registered and the entire incident be probed to find out the truth,” the court said while ordering the probe on the advocate’s plea made under section 156 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
“It is a matter of investigation as to whether the police team shot Giridhari in self-defence or the team exceeded its power of self-defence,” the court said.
The court gave the order taking note of the presence of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Sanjeev Suman, and Vibhuti Khand police station in-charge, Chandra Shekhar Singh, at the spot of the encounter.
In her order, the CJM said though the police lodged two FIRs over Giridhari’s bid to run away from the police custody and opening of fire by him at the police, no FIR was registered to probe the incident of his death.
Earlier, in his application, advocate Yadav alleged that SHO Chandra Shekhar Singh and other policemen killed Giridhari under fool-proof conspiracy and prepared false documents to suppress evidence in the case.
This all happened when Giridhari was in police custody on the basis of an order passed by the CJM herself. Giridhari was killed in an encounter with the police on February 15. He was arrested for allegedly gunning down Ajit Singh in the posh Gomti Nagar area in Lucknow on January 6.
Following Giridhari’s encounter death, Lucknow Police Commissioner D.K. Thakur had said three policemen too were injured in the incident.
“Around 3.00 a.m., Giridhari Vishwakarma was taken to Khargapur crossing along with the weapon used in the crime. When sub-inspector Akhtar Usmani was getting down from the vehicle with him, the accused hit him on his nose. The officer fell on the ground and the accused snatched his pistol and started running. The sub-inspector followed him but Giridhari hid behind bushes and started firing, after which the police also opened fire which led to his death,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Nilabja Choudhury had said. (IANS)
