A Mumbai court has sentenced 21 people, including 13 policemen, to life imprisonment for the killing of a gangster in a staged shootout.
The Mumbai Sessions Court Friday handed life jail terms to 21 people, 13 of whom were policemen, for the kidnapping and killing of real-estate broker Ramnarayan Gupta in 2006, a murder that police falsely reported as a shootout.
The 21 were convicted on charges including murder, abduction and criminal conspiracy. They will appeal to the high court, said Girish Kulkarni, who represents three of them.
The prime suspect in the case, Senior Inspector Pradeep Sharma, was acquitted of all charges and set free by the court on July 5.
Vidya Kassle, the prosecuting attorney, said she would advise the state to appeal Sharma’s acquittal to the high court, and seek the death sentence for the 15 of the 21 others convicted.
All, including Sharma, have denied all allegations, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The brother of the murdered businessman and a lawyer who assisted the prosecution in the courtroom trial told India Real Time he was not satisfied with the verdict.
“I am satisfied that we were able to prove that the encounter was fake, but I’m not happy with the rest of the judgement,” he said.
