New Delhi:
The Delhi High Court has asked the government to pay a compensation of Rs 15 lakh each to the families of two Haryana businessmen, shot dead in March 1997 in Connaught Place by a city police team mistaking them for gangsters.
While asking the Union Home Ministry to pay the compensation within six weeks, Justice S Muralidhar sought the compliance report of his order within 12 weeks.
The court ordered the ministry to pay the compensation on a plea by the family members of the victims.
Gurgaon businessmen Pradeep Goyal and Jagjit Singh were killed by a Delhi police team, headed by its encounter specialist and former Assistant Commissioner of Police S S Rathee on March 31, 1997.
Rathee and his nine subordinates were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court in 2007. The High Court had upheld their conviction and sentence in September 2009.