The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the FIR registerd by the Maharashtra government against Haryana police officials for killing gangster Sandeep Gadoli in an encounter in a Mumbai hotel on Februar
The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the FIR registerd by the Maharashtra government against Haryana police officials for killing gangster Sandeep Gadoli in an encounter in a Mumbai hotel on February 7. A bench comprising Justices V. Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra set aside the February 15 order of the Bombay High Court for registration of an FIR against the police officers involved in the encounter. The HC had passed the order on a PIL by the gangster’s brother Kuldeep Singh and with the consent of the public prosecutor. The bench, hearing an appeal against the HC order, pointed out that the order was passed without hearing the Haryana police. Accordingly to the bench, after quashing the order remanded the matter back to the HC for a fresh hearing after giving opportunity to the Haryana police.
Appearing for Haryana, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi submitted that the Mumbai police had already registered an FIR in the case at the instance of Haryana police. After coming to know that Gadoli was staying in Airport Metro Hotel in Mumbai, a team of Gurgaon police went there to arrest him as he was a proclaimed offender and wanted in eight cases of murder and other offences. When he was asked to surrender, the gangster opened fire on the police team injuring one of them, thereby forcing the police to fire in self defence. The injured Gadoli was handed over to Mumbai police that had reached the hotel, but he died on way to hospital.
Mr. Rohatgi said since an FIR had already been registered against Gadoli for firing at the police, there could not be a second FIR, this time against Gurgaon police, in the same case. Some of the Haryana policemen could be included as accused in the case if the special investigation team, which was probing the incident, or the trial court felt the need for it, but there was no legal provision for a second FIR, he pleaded. Counsel for Maharashtra informed the Bench that the High Court had passed the order due to a misunderstanding of the statement made by the Public Prosecutor.
While the gangster’s brother had pleaded in the High Court that police killed Gadoli at the instance of the gangster’s business rivals, Haryana government maintained that the accused had a long criminal record and faced as many as 40 FIRs since 1999.
