Patna: Two cops held guilty of killing three students in fake encounter

Two policemen have been pronounced guilty of murdering three students in a fake encounter 12 years ago by a local court on Thursday. Six others were found guilty of attempt to murder in the case by Fast Track Court-I judge Ravi Shankar Sinha.

The two held guilty are the then station house officer of Shastri Nagar police station Shamse Alam and constable Arun Kumar Singh. The court will pronounce quantum of sentence to the eight accused on June 12.

The three students - Vikash Ranjan, Prashant Singh and Himanshu Shekhar were killed in a fake encounter case at a market near Ashiyana Nagar locality under Shastri Nagar police station area in Patna on December 28, 2002. The six found guilty of attempt to murder were shopkeepers of Sammelan Market who had brutally beaten up the three students following a scuffle between them and a telephone booth operator over paying a STD bill. The six were Kamlesh Kumar Gautam, Raju Ranjan, Soni Rajak, Kumod Kumar, Rakesh Kumar Mishra and Anil.

Alam, who had arrived at the spot with Singh on being informed, fatally shot the three students in the head and dubbed them as dacoits in a report of the police station. Mukesh Ranjan, brother of slain student Vikash Ranjan was an informant of the fake encounter case.

The case was first probed by the local police, then CID and subsequently handed over to CBI. As many as 33 witnessed were examined by the court during the protracted trial. Alam, the prime accused, was denied bail by various courts ever since he was arrested in the case in 2003.