The ADJ-14 Court has given its verdict in the 12-year-old encounter case of Dara Singh aka Daria Jat. The court has acquitted all accused in the allegedly fake encounter due to lack of evidence. Dara Singh, a bootlegger, was a resident of Mundital in Churu district’s Rajgarh Tehsil. He was killed in an encounter with the police in Jaipur on October 23, 2006.
The accused in this case included Cabinet Minister Rajendra Rathore and 14 police officials of various ranks, 2 senior IPS officers, the then ADG AK Jain, and Additional Director General of Police A Ponnuchami. Back then, both Rathore and Jain were booked for ‘hatching conspiracy’ but were later discharged due to the lack of evidence.
Dara Singh and Sushila Devi
After this, Dara’s wife Sushila Devi had filed a petition and Supreme Court handed over the case to CBI on April 9, 2011. In the complaint, Sushila had mentioned that the police had faked the encounter to kill Dara Singh. In the same year, 14 policemen were arrested in the case. The prosecution presented 194 witnesses, 705 documentary evidence while the defendant presented 463 documentary evidence but no witnesses were present.
In April 2012, CBI had also arrested BJP Leader Rajendra Rathore but after being in custody for 51 days, he was acquitted by the court. Later in February 2015, ADG AK Jain was also acquitted by the High Court. The acquittal of Rajendra Rathore was challenged by another petition filed by CBI and Sushila Devi.
The High Court then asked Rathore to surrender and the trial court was asked to initiate the trial again. To this order of surrender, Rathore approached Supreme Court followed by which SC had put a stay on the High Court’s order and since then the appeal is pending in the court.
