GONDA ENCOUNTER CASE

• An alleged group clash had occurred on the night of 12 March 1982 in Madhavpur village located within the Katrabazar police station area in Gonda district.
• Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Krishna Pratap Singh (K P Singh), on getting the information about the criminals Ram Bhulawan and Arjun Pasi, went to the village with the police.

GONDA ENCOUNTER CASE

• K P Singh was later taken to the hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. 12 other people also died who were later declared dacoits by R B Saroj (who was head of police station) and his partners.
• The police later submitted a report saying the DSP was killed by dacoits in a bomb attack and the policemen killed the dacoits in an encounter. They also showed the bodies of 12 people as evidence.

KINJAL SINGH

• At a very young age, when all the other kids were out playing, Kinjal, along with her mother, Vibha, used to travel to the Supreme Court in Delhi.
• Vibha, a strong single mother and a devoted wife, got a job in a Varanasi treasury and supported both her daughters’ education as well as her quest to seek justice for her husband. This struggle continued for the next 31 years till they finally got justice.

KINJAL SINGH

• Kinjal, along with her daily to and fro visits from her home in Uttar Pradesh to the Supreme Court in Delhi, studied hard.
• She got into Delhi’s esteemed Lady Shri Ram College but this was when another tragedy struck the two daughters.
• Their mother got diagnosed with cancer and the news came as a shock to her daughters who had already lost their father. After an intense battle with her disease, she died peacefully.

KINJAL SINGH

• After her mother’s death, Kinjal soon returned to give her final exams in her college. Soon after her graduation, she also brought along her younger sister, Pranjal Singh, to Delhi.
• Together, they completely focused their attention on preparing for the UPSC exam. They both cleared the UPSC examination in 2007 with Kinjal securing the 25th rank and Pranjal securing the 252nd rank.
• In 2013, after 31 years of their struggle, the CBI special court in Lucknow penalised all the 18 perpetrators behind their father DSP Singh’s murder.

 JUSTICE

• K P Singh had ordered inquiry against the then subinspector R B Saroj. Yashpal Singh, then SP of Gonda (later DGP of UP Police from Jan 2005 to Apr 2006), started the investigation.
• After the inquiry, he was removed.The police initially maintained that Singh was killed by criminals. The SHO of Katra Bazar Police Station Tirath Rajpal investigated the incident and gave the cops a clean chit, however K P Singh’s wife, Vibha Singh and state president of People’s Union for Civil Liberties Chitranjan Singh, alleged that K P Singh’s subordinates had conspired to kill him.

JUSTICE

• Vibha Singh then approached the High Court and a CBI investigation was ordered on Supreme Court’s intervention.
• The CBI registered an FIR on 24 February 1984, accusing the cops of killing the DSP and villagers in a fake encounter, finally a charge sheet was filed against 19 policemen by the CBI on 28 February 1989, and 7 September 2001.

 JUSTICE

• After 24 long years of investigation, the special CBI court convicted eight policemen on 29 March 2013. In the trial period of 19 policemen who were charge sheeted, 10 had died and seven had retired.
• On 5 April 2013, the CBI court judge Rajendra Singh announced death penalty for three policemen and life imprisonment for the five remaining accused.

KINJAL SINGH

• I am proud of my father who was an honest officer and my mother who proved to be a strong single parent and a stronger widow who stood up against the injustice done to her husband.