Wary of Gadoli encounter twist, police followed procedure during Ravi Nagar shoot-out

The police followed guidelines laid down by the NHRC and a directive by the Supreme Court during the encounter

Wary after the twist to the Sandeep Gadoli encounter case in February, 2016, the Gurgaon police treaded very cautiously during the encounter of Akash Kumar alias Lucky, who was killed in a shootout with police late Thursday evening in Ravi Nagar. Ensuring that all the procedures were followed, the police immediately ordered that inquest proceedings of the deceased are conducted by a judicial magistrate.

The Honda City that was stolen by the three accused. One of them was killed in a shoot-out in Ravi Nagar on Thursday night. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

The postmortem examination of the deceased was also conducted by a team of designated doctors and the entire procedure was videographed, the police said.

“The family members of the deceased have been informed about the incident. We are following guidelines issued by the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) and the Supreme Court directive that is to be followed during such incidents,” Ravinder Kumar, PRO, Gurgaon police, said. He also said that immediately after the shootout, the deceased was taken to a hospital where he was declared brought dead.

The Gurgaon police had suffered a major setback in the Sandeep Gadoli encounter case, as five police officers of the crime branch were arrested by the Mumbai police on charges of orchestrating a fake encounter. While two constables arrested in that cause were granted bail, three officers are lodged in jail since the last one-and-a-half years.

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Police also said that Akash Kumar (20), the deceased, had an early brush with the law enforcers as he escaped from a Faridabad jail in 2015 when he was a minor. He also had over 30 cases registered against him in Aligarh, Delhi and NCR related to theft, dacoity, attempt to dacoity and burglary. Police also said that the family members of the deceased had cut off ties with him due to his criminal activities. It was also revealed that the accused stole vehicles from Gurgaon and executed robberies before leaving the city.

“They were planning another hit when they were caught by the crime branch team. They not only fired on the police, but the driver (Akash) also tried to run over our men. The police also found a pint of whiskey, three plastic glasses and cigarette lighter lying under the back seat. The glass window on the driver’s side was broken due to the exchange of fire,” Sumit Kuhar, DCP, crime, said.