11 policemen sentenced to life for Raja Man Singh murder in 1985 (Ld)

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) A local court in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura on Wednesday sentenced 11 policemen, including the then Deputy Superintendent of Police, to life imprisonment in a case pertaining to the murder of royal Raja Man Singh in 1985.

District Judge Sadhana Rani Thakur announced the life imprisonment sentence a day after holding them guilty of the killing. Three policemen were, however, acquitted. Four men died during the trial.

The policemen were convicted under Section 302 (murder), 148 (rioting) and 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code.

The verdict comes 35 years and over 1,700 hearings after Man Singh, the then-titular head of Bharatpur, a princely state in Rajasthan, was killed.

He, along with two others, was shot in police firing a day after he crashed his jeep into the then Chief Minister Shiv Charan Mathur’s helicopter in a fit of anger in Rajasthan during the election campaign.

His killing created a political storm in Rajasthan, leading to Rajasthan Chief Minister Mathur tendering his resignation.

The trial which had commenced in a court in Rajasthan’s Jaipur was later shifted to Mathura sessions court in December 1990.

The matter was transferred on the directions of the Supreme Court after Man Singh’s daughter Krishnendra Kaur filed a petition.

–IANS

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