A court in Sant Ravidas Nagar has issued non-bailable warrants against 35 policemen for killing an innocent man in a fake encounter in 1998 and claimed him as Dhananjay Singh,a history-sheeter,who is incidentally now the BSP candidate from Jaunpur. The case had come to light after Singh turned up four months after the encounter. Additional district counsel Dinesh Nath Pandey said the NBWs were issued a few days ago since the accused policemen had failed to turn up before the court despite several summons. Confirming the receipt of the courts orders,Sant Ravidas Nagar SP Ashutosh Kumar said since most of the policemen have retired,it could take time to locate them. The senior-most among them is Deputy Superintendent of Police Akhilanand Misra. On October 17,1998,the police claimed to have shot four criminals,including Dhananjay Singh,who carried a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head,in an encounter on Mirzapur-Bhadohi road. The policemen were even felicitated by the then district police chief for their work. In the evening the same day,Phool Chand Yadav,a CPM worker from Bhadohi,came to learn that among those killed was his nephew Om Prakash Yadav and that the police was showing him up as Dhananjay Singh. I told the police it was my innocent nephew. But they refused to accept it. I then wrote to Mulayam Singh Yadav and the state secretary of CPM, said Yadav. Since Om Prakash was an active worker of the Samajwadi Party,Mulayam,then the Leader of the Opposition,put pressure on the state government and an inquiry was ordered. Two months later,an FIR for fake encounter was registered and CB-CID took over the probe. Four months after the incident,Dhananjay Singh turned up alive in a Jaunpur court and surrendered in an old case,said Pandey. Om Prakashs father Panna Lal Yadav said,A day before the encounter,two persons,Panna Lal Sharma and BL Rai,had taken Om Prakash to Sant Ravidas Nagar to introduce him to a senior politician. They said later they left him at a tea stall from where police caught him. It was Sharma and Rai who later identified Om Prakash as Dhananjay Singh to the police. In all,the charge-sheet names 37 accused. Sharma and Rai are the only accused who surrendered before the court. Both are out on bail and their trial is pending, said Pandey. Since none of the policemen has so far appeared in court,their trial has not even begun.
