Gadoli encounter: Bombay HC directs Mumbai cops to register FIR against Gurgaon Police

Acting on a petition filed by the elder brother of the Sandeep Gadoli, who was killed in an encounter by Gurgaon Police, the Bombay high court directed the Mumbai Police to register an FIR into the case against the Gurgaon Police Crime Branch on Monday morning.

The encounter took place on February 7 at a hotel in Mumbai, soon after the police got a tip-off about Gadoli’s girlfriend being driven from Gurgaon to Gadoli’s hotel in Mumbai by one of his allies, Manish Khurana.

The petition that was filed by Gadoli’s elder brother, Kuldeep Singh, also alleged that it was a ‘fake encounter’ at the behest of a business rival and demanded that an offense of murder be registered against the Gurgaon Police.

The petition read: “The police knocked him unconscious before shooting him at point-blank range”.

On the other hand, Gadoli’s sisters — Sudesh Kataria and Jyotsana Gulia — who have been camping outside Mumbai’s JJ Hospital refused to take Gadoli’s body till a fair probe was instituted into his death. “We will not bring back the body to Gurgaon till an FIR is registered against the Gurgaon Police and they are booked for the cold-blooded murder. We want justice for our brother. Till then, we won’t claim his dead body from the JJ mortuary,” said Sudesh.

The Bombay high court also questioned the Mumbai Police as to why the Mumbai police did not record Gadoli’s family’s FIR if they could register the Gurgaon cop’s FIR in this case. Answering to this, the Assistant commissioner of Mumbai Police Avhdhoot Chavan said that they have started an inquiry and are waiting for the forensic laboratory to conclude the reports.

“Firing marks in the room clearly indicate that the operation was a staged encounter where the Gurgaon Police Crime Branch killed Gadoli in his sleep,” said Kuldeep Singh, Gadoli’s elder brother.

The sisters have also alleged that the Gurgaon Police had used a woman — who is allegedly Gadoli’s girlfriend to track Gadoli. Gadoli’s brother has also alleged that an ACP-rank officer who was earlier the in-charge of the crime unit, Gurgaon Police had threatened the family of killing Gadoli and this official was behind the alleged encounter.

On December 12, Gadoli’s mother Murti Devi submitted a complaint letter to the Haryana Governor and demanded an independent inquiry against Gadoli. In the letter, she alleged that during a police raid conducted at their house, the policemen took away cash and jewellery.

However, the Gurgaon Police Commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk could not be contacted for a comment.