The 1982 Gonda Encounter is an ongoing criminal case involving the murder of 13 people including the Deputy Superintendent of police in Gonda district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. On 5 March 2013 three police personnel were given capital punishment and five others were given life-time imprisonment by the special CBI court in Lucknow. The case has been described as the "Rarest of rare cases" and also for the slow process of the Indian judicial system since the verdict was announced after 31 years.
Alleged encounter and killing
An alleged group clash had occurred on the night of 12 March 1982 in Madhavpur village located within the Katrabazar police station area in Gonda district. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Krishna Pratap Singh (K P Singh), on getting the information about the criminals Ram Bhulawan and Arjun Pasi, went to the village with the police. K P Singh was later taken to the hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. 12 other people also died who were later declared dacoits by R B Saroj (who was head of police station) and his partners. The police later submitted a report saying the DSP was killed by dacoits in a bomb attack and the policemen killed the dacoits in an encounter. They also showed the bodies of 12 people as evidence.
Allegations and investigation
The reason for the alleged killing is said to be the enmity between Deputy Superintendent of police, K P Singh, and his subordinates, whom he suspected of having close co-operation with the local criminals. K P Singh had ordered inquiry against the then sub-inspector R B Saroj. Yashpal Singh, then SP of Gonda (later DGP of UP Police from Jan 2005 to Apr 2006), started the investigation. After the inquiry, he was removed. The police initially maintained that Singh was killed by criminals. The SHO of Katra Bazar Police Station Tirath Rajpal investigated the incident and gave the cops a clean chit, however K P Singh's wife, Vibha Singh (then PCS Officer) and state president of People's Union for Civil Liberties Chitranjan Singh, alleged that K P Singh's subordinates had conspired to kill him. On her complaint, the local officers refused to take action. Vibha Singh then approached the High Court and a CBI investigation was ordered on Supreme Court's intervention. The CBI registered an FIR on 24 February 1984, accusing the cops of killing the DSP and villagers in a fake encounter, finally a charge sheet was filed against 19 policemen by the CBI on 28 February 1989, and 7 September 2001.
Preliminary investigation had found encounter as doubtful as the CBI found the death of the DSP as mysterious and had found evidence that K P Singh was probing a number of inquires pending against R B Saroj related to allegations of corruption, bribery and human rights violations. The encounter though told by the police to have lasted for hours, but there were no signs of bullets on any house and no villager was injured. The statement of witnesses, villagers and doctors contradicted the statement by the police., also the investigating agency found most of the firearms shown recovered from the villagers in alleged encounter were not in working condition.