25 years after botched up encounter, Delhi HC orders solatium of Rs 15 lakh to survivor

On March 31, 1997, the Delhi police shot three people on the Barakhamba road near Connaught palace and reported it as an encounter. ust a few hours after the shootout, it came to light that the victims of the shooting were ordinary businessmen.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered a compensation of Rs 15 lakh to the victim of a fake encounter at Connaught Place executed about 25 years ago in March 1997. A bench headed by Justice Pratibha Singh ordered compensation to the victim Tarunpreet Singh along with eight per cent interest per annum from the day of the incident. "In addition, a sum of Rs 2 lakhs shall also be awarded as litigation costs to the petitioner," the bench ordered.

On March 31, 1997, the Delhi police shot three people on the Barakhamba road near Connaught palace and reported it as an encounter. The sole survivor of the supposed encounter, Tarunpreet Singh was travelling in a car with his two friends -- Pradeep Goyal and Jagjit Singh -- and had stopped at Barakhamba Road. It was these three that the police had shot. They were immediately rushed to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where the doctors declared two of the victims dead on arrival, while Singh had sustained serious injuries.

Just a few hours after the shootout, it came to light that the victims of the shooting were ordinary businessmen. A case of murder was registered in the matter against 10 policemen, including the then police commissioner Satyaveer Singh Rathi. Convicting all the accused guilty in a court trial on October 24, 2007, the court had sentenced them to life imprisonment. The conviction was upheld by the High Court on September 18, 2009, and by the Supreme Court, in a judgment passed on May 2, 2011.

Tarunpreet Singh, with a shrapnel lodged in the head and slight disability in the right hand after the shootout, filed a petition in December 1998 seeking compensation of Rs 1 crore. Highlighting that the petitioner's mental and physical trauma is unfathomable, the court said, "Any compensation awarded ought to take care of not merely his present condition but any future complications that may arise. He has two children for whom he needs to cater in terms of education and marriage. The fact that the other two friends passed away but the Petitioner was merely injured cannot result in different standards being applied, in as much as even in the case of petitioner, who is alive, he has lost the prime of his life."

The court further noted that injury caused due to the state action needs to be considered at a higher standard as compared to those of ordinary cases of negligence and inaction, especially when the police officials were convicted of criminal offences.