Relief for BJP MLA in fake encounter case

In a morale booster to the BJP’s Rajasthan unit, the  party MLA and former minister Rajendra Singh Rathore was on Thursday acquitted of the charge of criminal conspiracy in the infamous Dara Singh fake encounter case by a local court here.

Rathore had been in the Jaipur Central Jail since April 5, after the CBI arrested him in the case. He was released from the jail on Thursday.

District and Sessions Judge, Jaipur, P K Jain squashed the charge against Rathore citing lack of evidence. He was accused of being the main conspirator in the local liquor smuggler Dara Singh’s encounter in October 2006.

“The CBI could not substantiate the charge of criminal conspiracy by Rathore to kill a history-sheeter from Jhunjhunu named Dara,” the court observed. After the court’s decision, an elated Rathore, BJP   MLA from Taranagar, was released from the jail. He said he would now go to the masses and expose the Congress government’s alleged  political conspiracy  to implicate  him in the case.

“I will go to public and tell them that how the corrupt Congress  government tried to fix me. I am innocent and have nothing to do with the case. I was arrested under a political conspiracy,” Rathore told reporters here.

The BJP legislator was in the  Jaipur Central Jail for 55 days along with other police officials in connection with the case.

The case was taken up by the CBI following a directive from the Supreme Court. About a dozen police offcials including ADG A K Jain, IG Ponnuchammy are still in the jail in connection with the case.

CBI charge sheet

The CBI had come out with a charge sheet alleging that Rathore was the mastermind in the fake encounter as there was a rivalry between him and the deceased over the latter’s support to a group of liquor mafia operating  in Jhunjhunu district of the state.

Rathore was arrested on the basis of phone calls he  had allegedly made to some police  officials involved in the case.

But the court said it was not sufficient to prove his involvement.