Fake encounter claim falls flat in high court

Lucknow: A plea alleging that an auto-rickshaw driver was falsely implicated in a criminal case and later shown arrested in a fake police encounter was withdrawn before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court after records produced by hospital and police failed to support the allegation.A division bench of Justice Rajnish Kumar and Justice Babita Rani dismissed the writ petition as withdrawn while granting the petitioner liberty to pursue any other remedy available under law.The petition, filed by Savitri, claimed that after a woman allegedly jumped out of the auto-rickshaw, the driver took her to Jagrani Hospital. It further alleged that the police later took the driver into custody, implicated him in criminal cases and projected his arrest as the outcome of a fake encounter.To verify these claims, the HC on July 7 directed that CCTV footage from Jagrani Hospital and available footage from the route between the place of occurrence and the hospital be produced.Jagrani hospital director Amitabh Gaurav said CCTV footage is retained only for 15 days and footage of May 30 was no longer available. He also informed the bench that the woman had never visited the hospital and there was no record of her treatment.

Investigating officer sub-inspector Atul Kumar told the court that no CCTV footage from the route could be obtained as the flyover between polytechnic and Jankipuram has no CCTV cameras. Police came to know of the incident only after an FIR was registered on May 31, he added.