By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Thursday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on an appeal filed by suspended police inspector Anil Kumar, challenging his conviction and life sentence for the shootout here a decade ago in which two innocent businessmen were killed.
A division bench headed by Justice R.S. Sodhi asked the prosecution agency to file its reply by Nov 13.
After then assistant commissioner of police S.S. Rathi, Kumar is the second convicted Delhi Police official to challenge the trial court’s verdict pronounced last month.
Rathi, Kumar and eight other policemen were given life term Oct 24 for killing two Haryana-based businessmen Pradeep Goyal and Jagjit Singh on March 31, 1997, allegedly because they were dreaded mobsters.
A trial court had on Oct 16 held them guilty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 302 (murder).
Advocate Sandeep Sethi appearing for Kumar submitted that the policeman did not fire a single shot from his revolver at the victims on March 31, 1997.
To counter the arguments of the prosecution, counsel claimed that the two of the occupants of the car, killed in the incident in Connaught Place here, had fired three rounds at the policemen.
Sethi said there was no evidence to establish that the convicts had hatched any criminal conspiracy to eliminate the two businessmen.
According to the CBI, it was Kumar, who had fired indiscriminately at the victims, resulting in the death of two of the three men in the car.
The court on Oct 29 had also issued a notice to the CBI, admitting an appeal against Rathi’s conviction and sentence in the shooting case.