A 24-year-old Ghaziabad youth was shot by the police in an alleged encounter in Dehradun on Friday evening.

While the police claimed Ranbir Singh was shot in retaliatory fire after he snatched a policeman’s revolver during a routine checking and fled into the woods, Singh’s family called it a frame-up. His father Ravinder Singh, an ex-serviceman who has served in the Kargil War, said on Saturday that Ranbir, an MBA from a Meerut institute, had gone to the Uttarakhand capital on Friday to join duty on his first job.

Calling it a “fake encounter”, Singh said the policemen “murdered” his son for gallantry award. The family lives in Niti Khand, Indirapuram, a few kilometres from the Delhi border.

The shooting raked up enough controversy for Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to order an investigation by the Crime Branch of Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID). He issued the orders after Ranbir’s family members and relatives met him this morning.

The state government had earlier ordered a magisterial probe into the case, which has now been withdrawn.

According to Uttarakhand police, Ranbir was riding a motorcycle with two friends last evening when a police team stopped them in Dalanwala, an upscale locality in Dehradun,during a routine checking of vehicles on the eve of President Pratibha Patil’s visit to the hill state.

But the youths, policemen claimed, assaulted a sub-inspector, snatched his service revolver and fled.

The police in Dehradun also claimed that two of the youths were carrying countrymade pistols.

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