IN THE COURT OF SH. BHARAT PARASHAR, ASJ-01, NEW DELHI DISTRICT, PATIALA HOUSE COURTS, NEW DELHI Case ID No. 02403R0021422009 Date of filing of charge sheet : 23.10.2001 Date of framing of charge : 17.09.2002 and 01.02.2005 (against accused Sharwan only) Date of final arguments : 29.05.2014 Date of judgment : 08.08.2014 SC No. 08/12 FIR No. 253/01 PS Parliament Street U/s 193/201/302/307/419/468/471/120B/34 IPC & Section 25/25(1B)/27/29 Arms Act In re: STATE Vs. 1. Sher Singh @ Sheru @ Pankaj (Convicted) S/o Surender Singh R/o 57, East Raj Putana, B. T. Ganj, Roorkee, Haridwar, Uttranchal 2. Shekhar Singh (Acquitted) S/o Raj Pal Singh R/o 18/2 East, Raj Putana, Roorkee, Distt. Haridwar, Uttranchal State v. Sher Singh Rana & Ors. Page 1 of 217 3. Raj Bir Singh (Acquitted) S/o Jagat Singh R/o Bijo Pur, PS Laskar, Distt. Haridwar, Uttranchal 4. Rajender Singh @ Ravinder Singh (Acquitted) S/o Mahender Singh R/o Vill. Budhiana, PS Khurja, Distt. Bulandshahar, U.P. 5. Dhan Parkash @ Vicky @ Dheeraj (Acquitted) S/o Dharam Pal R/o Village Bhalaswa Gaaj PS Jabhreda, Distt. Haridwar Uttranchal 6. Vijay Singh Rana @ Raju (Acquitted) S/o Surender Singh R/o 57, East Raj Putana, B. T. Ganj, Roorkee Distt. Haridwar, Uttranchal 7. Surender Singh Negi @ Suri (Acquitted) S/o Gan Pat Singh R/o Gokul Patti Aswal Sayun Distt. Pauri Garhwal Uttranchal 8. Parveen Mittal (Acquitted) S/o S. K. Mittal R/o 77 East Amber Talab Roorkee, Distt. Haridwar Uttranchal 9. Amit Rathi (Acquitted) S/o Subhash Chand R/o Village Libbar Heri, PS Mangalore, Distt. Haridwar, Uttranchal State v. Sher Singh Rana & Ors. Page 2 of 217 10. Sharwan Kumar (Acquitted) S/o Chander Bhushan R/o Vill. Niwari, PS Makdoom Pur, Distt. Jahanabad, Bihar 11. Keshav Chauhan (Acquitted) S/o Hari Charan Chauhan R/o Village Bigahi, PO Doman Pur PS Chauri, Distt. Sant Ravi Dass Nagar UP 12. Pardeep Singh (since expired) S/o Motwar Singh R/o Dunk Patti Aswal Sayun Distt. Pauri Garhwal Uttranchal APPEARANCES Present : Sh. S.K. Saxena, Ld. Special PP for the State alongwith Ms. Manisha Sharma, Advocate. Sh. Mukesh Kalia, Ld. Counsel for accused Sher Singh Rana, Rajbir Singh, Keshav Chauhan and Vijay Singh Rana. Sh. Rakesh Vats, Ld. Counsel for accused Shekhar Singh, Parveen Mittal, Amit Rathi and Sharwan Kumar. Ms. Sumita Kapil, Amicus Curiae for accused Rajender Singh. Sh. B.K. Kulshreshtha, Ld. Counsel for accused Dhan Parkash and Surender Singh Negi State v. Sher Singh Rana & Ors. Page 3 of 217 JUDGMENT 1. Briefly stated the case of prosecution as unfolded by the report u/s 173 Cr.P.C. is as under: 2. On 25.07.01 at about 1.30 PM the then Member of Parliament Smt. Phoolan Devi was shot dead just outside the main gate of her house i.e. 44 Ashoka Road by two assailants. Her PSO PW-73 Ct. Balender was also shot at but fortunately he survived the bullet injuries. 3. Ct. Balender however showed courage and retaliated by firing from his service revolver towards the assailants who in the meantime had fled away from the spot in a waiting green colour Maruti Car No. CIM-907. One of the bullet even hit the rear glass of the Maruti Car. The assailants also returned fire from the Car and in the process also managed to flee away. 4. The sister of Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi namely PW-104 Munni Devi, personal staff of Smt. Phoolan Devi and PW-17 Uma Kashyap a visitor to the house of Smt. Phoolan Devi on that day helped in removing both Smt. Phoolan Devi and her PSO Ct. Balender to RML hospital after getting a passing by maruti van belonging to PW-164 Rajneesh Sharma stopped. In the meantime various messages about the shoot out were received at police control room which initially stated that some shoot out incident has taken place at Ashoka Road or that some lady has been shot. State v. Sher Singh Rana & Ors. Page 4 of 217 5. One chance witness namely, PW-129 Vinod Vishwanath, a scooterist also informed PW-24 ASI Shri Krishan who was on Traffic Control duty at near Gol Dak Khana that the assailants who had fired at near 44, Ashoka Road have left their Car near Pandit Pant Marg between Kothi No. 12 and 14 and had thereafter run away in a TSR bearing No. DL- IR-F-0235. The said message was also conveyed to police control room. ASI Shri Krishan in the meantime went near Pandit Pant Marg and saw one green colour Maruti Car No. CIM-907 parked over there with dark window panes. He also sent messages in this regard to the police control room. 6. PW-13 ASI Satish Joshi of PS Mandir Marg who was also on duty in the nearby area of Gol Dak Khana was also informed by one boy that 3 persons who had shot at a lady at Ashoka Road, after leaving their Car, had run away in a TSR from Pandit Pant Marg towards Krishi Bhawan. ASI Satish Joshi also thus went near the car and he too sent messages in this regard to the police control room. In the meantime PW- 167 Insp. G.L. Mehta, SHO PS parliament street also reached the spot. Since a Member of Parliament was shot at so a lot of hue and cry was raised and number of senior police officers also rushed to the spot. Insp. G.L. Mehta after making initial inquiry recorded statement (in Hindi) of one eye witness namely, PW-52 Kali Charan who was working as personal staff of Smt. Phoolan Devi. I am however reproducing here under the English translation of said statement of Kali Charan as has been mentioned in the charge sheet filed by the police since the contents of the said statement are going to be very relevant while appreciating the nature of evidence led by the police against various accused persons. The said State v. Sher Singh Rana & Ors. Page 5 of 217 English translation of the statement of Kali Charan as is mentioned in the charge sheet reads as follows: “I am residing at the above given address and am associated with Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi, MP Lok Sabha since 1997. I look after the work of the office at 44 Ashoka Road alongwith S. F.M. Dass, Personal Secretary. Today morning Smt. Uma Kashyap alongwith her husband and driver Pankaj reached here at about 10 AM by Car. All three of them walked in, while the Car remained parked outside the house. Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi was cooking something in the kitchen. Seeing Smt. Kashyap, she came out, met them and took Smt. Kashyap inside the house. The husband of Smt. Kashyap and Pankaj sat with me in my office. Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi, Member of Parliament, asked me to call for a mini bus from parliament house. I made a call and around 11 AM, a mini bus from Parliament House, came to the house but by that time Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi was not ready, as such, the mini bus was sent back. After some time Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi left for Parliament in the Car brought by Smt. Uma Kashyap. At that time PSO to Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi Cost. Balender Singh was with her and Pankaj was driving the Car. Vivek, Munni Devi (sister of Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi), Shiv Narain Cook, Uma Kashyap, her husband, Ram Chander Kahsyap (Gokul Puri, Delhi) and two persons from the Constituency of Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi were present in the house. It was around 1.25/1.30PM, when I had finished my meal and after drinking water I came out from the office side. I saw that the PSO to Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi was opening the gate and Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi was standing outside. In the meantime two men aged about 25/30 yrs height about 5' 7”, fair complexion, wearing jean and one was wearing printed shirt and the other who was wearing dark coloured pant started firing at Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi. The bullets hit the head and breast of Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi and bullets hit the PSO also. I ran towards the gate and saw those two running and escaping in a dark green coloured Maruti Car. The PSO also fired shots at the Car but the Car sped away towards Gole Dak Khana. I alongwith State v. Sher Singh Rana & Ors. Page 6 of 217 other inmates of the house got busy in taking care of Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi and informed the police at 100 number from the office. PSO in his injured condition also followed me to office. Then I sent injured Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi and the PSO to the Hospital in a Maruti Van stopped by the members of the family. I can identify these persons if they are brought before me. The man by the name of Pankaj who had already come to the house two three times with Smt. Uma Kashyap whom I know very well is missing since then with his vehicle. Now I have come to know that Smt. Smt. Phoolan Devi has died.” (emphasis supplied) 7. Insp. G.L. Mehta accordingly made his endorsement on the basis of said statement of Kali Charan and got a case registered at PS Parliament Street. The subsequent investigation was however transferred to the Crime Branch by the orders of Sr.