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Patna HC acquits eight in fake encounter case
Patna: Citing lack of evidence, the Patna High Court on Wednesday acquitted eight people, among them two police officials, convicted of murdering three students in a fake skirmish 13 years ago in Patna, an official said.
A bench of the Patna High Court acquitted all the eight convicted people, saying there was insufficient evidence against them in the charge sheet filed by police, a lawyer said.
Those acquitted included two police officials – then station house officer (SHO) of Shastri Nagar police station Shamse Alam and constable Arun Kumar Singh.
Alam was sentenced to death and Singh, along with six others, was sentenced to life imprisonment last year by the fast track court here.
According to the charge sheet, the three students – Vikash Ranjan, Prashant Singh and Himanshu Shekhar – were killed in a fake gun battle at a market near Ashiyana Nagar locality on December 28, 2002, in Patna.
Besides the two police officials, the other six held guilty of attempt to murder were shopkeepers of Sammelan Market who had brutally beaten up the three students following a scuffle between them and a telephone booth operator over the payment of bill.
The shopkeepers then called police and handed over the three students to them, claiming they were thieves and involved in crimes. The two policemen later shot the students dead and in police records dubbed them as robbers.
After a hue and cry by the opposition parties, the case was first handed over to the local police for investigation, then to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and subsequently to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.
In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).
The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.
The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.
Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.
In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.
The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.