In a blow to the 11 policemen whose life sentence was suspended for a period of six months by the Maharashtra government, the Bombay high court Monday granted an interim stay on the suspension order and directed them to surrender by January 4.
The state government had last month passed an order by which it suspended for six months the life sentence imposed on 11 policemen convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the fake encounter of alleged Chhota Rajan gang member Ramnarayan Gupta, alias Lakhanbhaiya, in November 2006. Lakhanbhaiya was shot dead allegedly by the policemen in suburban Versova. The 11 policemen were released from jail on December 3.
Lakhanbhaiya’s brother Ramprasad Gupta, a practising advocate, approached the high court challenging the government’s decision and terming it as “illegal, null, void, bad in law, perverse, unreasonable, arbitrary, cryptic, vague and liable to be quashed and set aside”. A division bench of Justices R.V. More and V.L. Achiliya on Monday heard the petitioner’s advocate Yug Choudhary, the policemen’s counsel Girish Godbole and prosecutor Usha Kejriwal.
