The court has also imposed a fine of Rs30,000 fine on each one of them. (Representational image)
A special CBI court at Ghaziabad on Tuesday convicted nine policemen including the then police station house officer (SHO) in connection to a fake encounter case reported about 16 years ago in Uttar Pradesh's Etah.
All the convicts including former SHO Pawan Singh, Pal Singh Thenwa, Rajendra Prasad, Sarnam Singh and Mohkam Singh were sentenced to life imprisonment. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs30,000 fine on each one of them.
Whereas other accused Baldev Prasad, Sumer Singh, Ajay Kumar and Awadhesh Rawat were sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs11,000 each for deliberately destroying evidence under IPC Section 34. Further details are awaited.
Rajaram, a carpenter from a resident of Sunehra village, was killed in the alleged encounter on August 18, 2006.
The accused policemen posted at Sidhpura police station had portrayed him as a dacoit and killed him in a fake encounter.
Rajaram's wife Santosh Kumari, later moved to Allahabad High Court and demanded an inquiry into the alleged encounter of her husband.
On June 1, 2007, the High Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the matter. The CBI collected all the evidence and filed a charge sheet against all the accused policemen.