Kanpur, Oct. 20 -- Twelve retired police personnel have been booked in Kanpur, 35 years after a CB-CID inquiry found that 12 men were allegedly falsely implicated in a robbery case following a staged police encounter, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

The FIR was registered at Maharajpur police station on a complaint by CB-CID Inspector Sushil Kumar under sections of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code (IPC) about fabrication of evidence, false charges, wrongful confinement and causing hurt.

The case has been registered under IPC sections 194, 195, 182, 211, 218, 220, 323 and 342, Commissioner of Police Raghubir Lal told PTI, adding that the CB-CID would investigate the matter.

The inquiry had named 18 police personnel, including the then station officer Vidyasagar Tripathi and investigating officer Ramesh Chandra Bhatole. Six of them have since died, Lal said.

According to the FIR, the police team received a tip-off on August 22, 1991, that a group of armed men was planning to rob vehicles near Narval turn on GT Road. Police claimed that the suspects blocked the road with babul branches around 12.30 am on August 23, leading to an encounter in which 12 men, including Rakesh Pathak, were arrested, a senior official said on condition of anonymity.

Firearms and explosives were allegedly recovered from the men, the official added.

However, the subsequent CB-CID inquiry found the police version to be fabricated.

The driver and cleaner of a DCM vehicle, Umashankar Pasi and Vijendra Singh, told CB-CID investigators that the police had picked up the men and taken them to Maharajpur police station in their vehicle. They denied that any robbery attempt or encounter had taken place at the spot.

They also alleged that the men were assaulted and the purported recovery of weapons was fabricated.

The case originated from a complaint by Deo Prasad Pathak, elder brother of Rakesh, who alleged that Tripathi had demanded a 400-square-yard plot from the family without payment.

Deo Prasad told reporters that after he refused to hand over the plot, the then station officer allegedly implicated his brother and his associates in the robbery case.

"I refused to give him the plot, after which a robbery case was registered against my brother," he said.

He added that he sought a CB-CID inquiry after securing his brother's bail from the High Court.

The inquiry report was approved by the CB-CID headquarters in Lucknow on September 25, 1995, an official said.

Rakesh died in a road accident in Kanpur on May 8, 2003, his brother said.

Those named in the FIR include sub-inspectors BD Saraswat, Yogendra Nath Singh and Ramesh Chandra; head constable Hriday Narayan Tiwari; constables Tej Narayan Tiwari, Baijnath, Brijesh Kumar, Chandrabali, Vidyakant Shukla, Ram Asare and Ramesh Kumar Tiwari; and driver Jageshwar Prasad.

Further investigation is underway.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.