Mathura: Eleven former policemen in Rajasthan, including a circle officer and a police station in-charge were convicted by a court here Tuesday. The policemen were found guilty of gunning down Raja Maan Singh of Bharatpur and his two colleagues. The incident happened over 35 years ago in Deeg area of Rajasthan.
The then circle officer Kan Singh Bhati and local police station in-charge Virendra Singh along with nine others were found guilty on charges of killing erstwhile Bharatpur riyasat’s chief and his colleagues Sumer Singh and Hari Singh. Mathura District Judge Sadhana Rani fixed Wednesday for pronouncing the quantum of sentences for the 11 convicts.
According to prosecution, Singh and his colleagues were killed in an encounter by a Deeg police at the local grain market February 21, 1985. The encounter happened a day after Maan Singh had allegedly damaged the former Rajashan Chief Minister Shiv Charan Mathur’s helicopter. Maan Singh was then contesting the Vidhan Sabha election as an independent candidate.
Maan Singh was also accused of damaging some publicity material and a stage set up for Mathur to address an election rally. The rally was in favour of Congress candidate Brajendra Singh, a retired IAS officer, the prosecution had told the court.
Initially probed by the local police, the case was later handed over to the CBI for investigation and its trial was shifted to Mathura on the orders of the Supreme Court.
“Though we have got delayed justice, I am happy that guilty persons have ultimately been convicted,” said Krishnendra Kaur Deepa, a member of the Bharatpur royal family and a multiple-term member of the Rajasthan Assembly, either as an independent or from the erstwhile Janata Dal or the BJP between 1985 and 2018.
Deepa, who also represented Bharatpur once as a BJP MP, had been pursuing the case since 1985.