Lucknow: A court here has ordered a probe into the death of a 40-year-old murder suspect in an alleged gunfight with policemen while trying to escape from custody. Chief Judicial Magistrate Sushil Kumari asked Thursday the Hazratganj police to lodge an FIR in the alleged encounter death of Girdhari Vishwakarma, February 15.
Girdhari alias ‘Kanhaiya’ alias ‘Doctor’ was arrested for allegedly gunning down a gangster, Ajit Singh, in this city’s posh Gomti Nagar locality January 6.
The court ordered the probe into the Girdhari’s death on a plea by advocate Sarvjeet Yadav. He had earlier represented Girdhari as his defence counsel following his arrest.
“There are clear guidelines of the Supreme Court that in a case of a police encounter, an FIR should be registered and the entire incident be probed to find out the truth,” the court said while ordering the probe on the advocate’s plea.
“It is a matter of investigation as to whether the police team caused the death of Girdhari in self-defence or the team exceeded its power of self-defence,” the court further said.
In her order, the CJM said though the police lodged two FIRs over Girdhari’s bid to run away from police custody and opening of fire by him at the police, no FIR was registered to probe the incident of his death.
Earlier, in his application, Yadav alleged that SHO Chandra Shekhar Singh and other policemen killed Girdhari and prepared false documents to suppress evidence in the case. Following Girdhari’s encounter death, Lucknow Police Commissioner D K Thakur had said three policemen too were injured in the incident.
Ajit Singh (39), a notorious criminal of Mau district having 17 cases against him, was killed in a shootout between rival factions in Gomti Nagar.