Three policemen arrested in Ranbir encounter case

Over three months after Ghaziabad youth Ranbir Singh was killed in an alleged fake encounter here, CBI has arrested three police personnel in connection with the case.

Sub inspector Santosh Jaiswal was arrested today while sub inspector GD Bhatt and constable Ajit Singh were arrested last night, police said today.

Earlier in September, Ram Kumar and Ashok Kumar, two friends of Singh, who were seen at Dalanwala area on July 3, where the alleged encounter took place were arrested by CBI.

22-year-old Singh, an MBA student from Ghaziabad, was shot dead from a close range on July 3 during the visit of president Pratibha Patil here.

Police later claimed that Singh was a criminal and was shot dead in an encounter at Ladpur jungles here after he snatched the service revolver of Bhatt at Dalanwala area.

But postmortem report contradicted police claims which revealed that Singh was shot dead from close range and was even tortured before death.

An FIR against 14 police personnel has already been lodged at Raipur police station that also includes Bhat and Singh.

Reacting to the arrests, the victim's father RP Singh said he had been insisting on a CBI inquiry from the beginning.

"I have full faith in the agency and believe that the investigation will be unbiased".

He said the arrested policemen should be sentenced to life imprisonment.

The case had caused a major embarrassment to the BJP government following which it recommended a CBI probe into the incident.