Gangster Anandpal killing: Court rejects CBI closure report, directs filing of murder case against cops

Jodhpur: A CBI court on Wednesday rejected the central probe agency's closure report in the alleged fake encounter of gangster Anandpal Singh in 2017 and directed that a case be filed on murder and other charges against police officials involved in the killing.

The court order came on a petition by Anandpal's wife Raj Kanwar challenging the closure report of the CBI which had given a clean chit to the then Churu SP Rahul Barhat, DSP (Kuchaman City) Vidhya Prakash, Inspector Surya Veer Singh and others.

Gangster Anandpal Singh was killed allegedly in an encounter at village Malasar in Churu on June 24, 2017 night. The police had claimed that after cordoning off the house where he was hiding, he was asked to surrender but he began firing on police and was killed in the ensuing encounter.

Following protests from his community members who alleged foul play in the incident, the case was handed over to the CBI by the Rajasthan government in December 2017.

After its investigation, the CBI concluded that it was an encounter and submitted a closure report in the court in August 2019.

Raj Kanwar and Anandpal's brother Rupenderpal Singh, as an eyewitness, had challenged this report in the court in May 2023.

Kanwar's counsel Bhanwar Singh said that after hearing arguments, the court observed that Anandpal had surrendered before he was killed.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Yuvraj Singh rejected the closure report and directed that a criminal case be filed against the then SP Rahul Barhat, the then DSP Vidhya Prakash, the then Inspector Surya Veer Singh, head constables Kailash Chandra and Sohan Singh and constables Dharmpal and Dharmveer.

The case will be filed under IPC sections 147 and 148 (related to rioting), 302 (punishment for murder), 326, 325 and 324 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons) read with section 149 which holds individuals accountable for offences committed by a group.