35 years later, CID probe says 12 men were framed in Kanpur ‘encounter’ case, FIR filed

Thirty-five years after 12 men were arrested in what police described as an encounter in Kanpur, an inquiry by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Crime Branch-CID (CB-CID) has found that the allegations against them were false. An FIR has now been registered against 12 police personnel for allegedly fabricating the case.

The CB-CID inquiry found that the police had allegedly fabricated an encounter story, claiming the men had cut branches from babul trees and placed them across a road to stop a truck and rob it. The inquiry found that the men had instead been picked up from their homes while they were asleep and that licensed firearms belonging to their family members were shown as weapons recovered from them.

According to the agency, 18 police personnel were involved in framing the 12 men in a false case involving charges of preparing to commit dacoity and attempted murder, among others. Six of the personnel have since died.

Following a complaint by the CB-CID, Kanpur police registered an FIR against 12 personnel at Maharajpur police station on Saturday. Sources said 11 of them have retired from service. They have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code relating to fabricating evidence, making false charges, wrongful confinement and causing hurt.

Maharajpur Station House Officer Janardhan Singh confirmed that the FIR had been registered on the CB-CID’s complaint. The agency will conduct the investigation, he said.

The inquiry stemmed from a complaint filed in 1991 by Kanpur resident Dev Prasad Pathak with the state government. He alleged that the then Maharajpur station house officer, Vidyasagar Tripathi, had falsely implicated his younger brother, Rakesh Pathak, and 11 others because they refused to hand over a plot of land to him free of cost. Tripathi has since died.

According to the original police account, Tripathi received information on August 22, 1991, that a group of criminals planned to stop vehicles and rob them near Narval crossing on GT Road. Acting on the tip-off, he and other policemen reached the spot. In the early hours of August 23, police claimed to have caught 12 men who had allegedly blocked the road with babul branches to stop a truck and rob it. Illegal firearms and bombs were allegedly recovered from them.

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Police subsequently filed a chargesheet against the men. They were booked under IPC sections relating to preparing for and assembling to commit dacoity and attempted murder, along with provisions of the Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act.

However, during the CB-CID inquiry, the truck driver, Umashankar Pasi, and cleaner Brijendra Singh, who were listed as witnesses in the FIR, did not support the police version.

They told investigators that on August 22, 1991, they were driving a DCM truck loaded with soap from Kanpur to Varanasi when a constable boarded the vehicle near Ramadevi crossing around 8 pm. Six other men then asked to board. Although Umashankar initially refused because they appeared intoxicated, he agreed at the constable’s insistence.

The constable allegedly drove the truck to Maharajpur police station and parked it. He then returned with a sub-inspector and two or three constables, who checked the men in the vehicle. Two fled, while police detained the other three. Two country-made pistols, cartridges and three bombs were allegedly recovered from them.

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Later that night, police personnel went on raids and returned with more men, along with a rifle and a gun, the witnesses told investigators.

Umashankar also alleged that police obtained signatures from the men on written documents the following day without reading the contents aloud or allowing them to read the papers themselves. He and Brijendra said they did not know what the documents contained. They also told investigators that no one had attempted to stop their truck at Narval crossing on the day of the incident.

Dev Prasad Pathak and five other witnesses told the CB-CID that Tripathi and his team had picked up the accused from their homes early on August 23, 1991, while they were asleep.

They also alleged that police took away a licensed double-barrelled gun belonging to Rakesh’s father, Sadashiv Pathak, and a licensed rifle belonging to Dev Prasad Pathak. Tripathi allegedly showed these weapons as recoveries, fabricated the encounter and implicated the 12 men, who were subsequently jailed.