Delhi High Court directs Delhi Police to file status report in 'staged' encounter of alleged gangster

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Delhi Police’s Joint-Commissioner to file a status report in the case of an alleged staged encounter of a ‘gangster’ who was picked from his house and then shot in the leg [Rohit Gehlot v State and Ors]..The direction came from single-judge Justice Mukta Gupta while hearing a petition filed by alleged gangster Rohit Gehlot, seeking an independent inquiry into an encounter which a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate had termed as "staged"..The petition, filed through advocates Vaibhav Tomar, Kunal Sharma and Prabhjot Singh and argued by Manu Sharma, alleged that Gehlot was picked by the police from his residential premises at Uttam Nagar on November 1, 2021, without following due process. The entire incident, Sharma argued, was captured on CCTV but the police made an effort to delete even that.Sharma added that this was not the first incident of a staged encounter in the area, and Gehlot's case is 17th in a long list of such cases. .According to the petition, after being picked up, Gehlot was taken to a residential complex at Sector-16 in Dwarka. At night, he was taken to a drain, blind-folded and shot in the leg by the police party. The party then dialed the PCR number which took him to a hospital.It was alleged that a news clipping appeared on November 3 in which it was mentioned that Sharma had been arrested by the police in connection with an FIR registered at the Najafgarh Police Station. The DCP had issued a statement to the media regarding the arrest..On November 12, 2021, Gehlot moved an application to meet his family members and advocates in the hospital. The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate passed an order directing the SHO to file a status report and facilitate a meeting with his family members.However, on the very next day (November 13), Gehlot's formal arrest was made from the hospital and he was sent to judicial custody without giving him an opportunity to meet his family.On November 15, the CMM called for a report from the hospital and directed the Tihar Jail authorities to allow him to meet his family as per the jail manual. Despite this order, Gehlot was not allowed the same. It was only on November 24 that he was allowed to see his family in the Court lock-up.“The petitioner has been arrested in a most unlawful manner wherein all fundamental rights during the process of arrest of an accused person have been violated by the investigating agency. Furthermore, in order to establish the fact that the Petitioner was lawfully apprehended and detained, a completely false FIR bearing number 0800/2021 has been lodged at PS, Uttam Nagar, Dwarka under Section 307, 186, 353 and 411 of the Indian Penal Code, facts of which are in complete contradiction with the actual factual narrative,” the petition stated.The petition further alleged that the report filed by the Additional DCP before the CMM court on November 22 is filled with contradictions and knits a completely false and concocted story about the arrest of the petitioner..Earlier, CMM Vinod Kumar Meena had pulled up the Delhi Police for this ‘staged’ encounter observing that “dubious encounters cannot be used as a solution to control crime”. The Court had said that it expects the Police Commissioner to order an independent investigation by the CID or a police team of another station under the supervision of a senior officer.The High Court proceeded to grant the Delhi Police time till January 18, 2021 to file its report.