Kanpur: An FIR has been registered against 12 retired policemen after a CB-CID inquiry found that a 1991 encounter was fabricated and evidence against 12 arrested men was false. The inquiry named 18 policemen, including the then station house officer, Vidyasagar Tripathi, and investigating officer Ramesh Chandra Bhatole. Six of them have since died.The FIR was registered at Maharajpur police station on Saturday on a complaint by CB-CID inspector Sushil Kumar, 35 years after the alleged fake encounter. They were booked under various IPC sections for fabricating evidence, filing false charges, wrongful confinement and causing hurt.DCP (East) Satyajit Gupta confirmed the FIR and said the CB-CID would continue investigating the case.Police had claimed that on Aug 23, 1991, a team confronted men attempting to rob a DCM truck at Narval turn after they blocked the road with tree branches. Twelve men were arrested and jailed after police claimed to have recovered country-made pistols, cartridges and bombs from them.Dev Prasad Pathak of Gandhigram, Chakeri, subsequently complained to the govt, alleging that Tripathi had demanded a plot free of cost. After the demand was refused, he allegedly orchestrated the encounter to implicate Pathak’s younger brother, Rakesh, and his associates.Truck driver Umashankar and cleaner Brijendra Singh told investigators that they were transporting soap from Kanpur to Varanasi when a constable and others forcibly boarded their vehicle at Ramadevi Chauraha. They were later taken to the police station and made to sign blank papers.Police later filed a chargesheet against the men, invoking IPC provisions related to preparation for and assembly to commit dacoity and attempted murder, as well as sections of the Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act.The inquiry found that the men had been picked up from their homes while asleep, and licensed firearms belonging to their family members were falsely shown as weapons recovered from them.
