A resident of Indirapuram near Delhi, Ranbir Singh, 24, was shot on Friday evening after he allegedly picked a fight with a sub-inspector and ran fled after snatching his revolver during a routine inspection drill ahead of President Pratibha Patil’s visit to the hill state. Calling it a fake encounter, Singh’s family claimed he was innocent and had gone to Dehradun to join a private company there.

Indicating that he might order a CBI probe into the case, Nishank on Monday said: “We want to proceed in a transparent manner and what matters most is that the victim’s parents must be satisfied. I have complete confidence in the high-level probe ordered but I will not hesitate to order a probe by any other agency if they (parents) want so.”

Nishank had initially ordered a probe by the state Crime Branch-CID.

Meanwhile, experts continue to raise eyebrows at the police’s ‘encounter’ claim: first, where are the two other youths the police said were riding the bike with Singh that evening? Questions are also being raised about how the two managed to flee if the police assertion that they, too, were hit by bullets.

Former Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amit Sinha had made that claim before he was moved to Police Headquarters on Sunday. Sinha had also said that an alert has been sounded in all medical establishments in the region about the injured absconding youths.

“From evidence reported till now, it seems to be a very hasty action,” Narender Singh, a retired senior officer who had worked in the Crime Branch of UP police and was part of several encounters, told Newsline on Monday. “The police could have got everything from Singh by arresting and interrogating him.

“Arrest is always the best option in tackling crime.”

P C Tewari, a human rights activist and lawyer based in Nainital, said, “The blackening of skin at the spots where bullets hit Singh suggests he was shot from less than three feet. Since he was shot in the chest, this defies police claims that he was trying to flee.”

Former UP Director General of Police C L Pradyot said, “The inquiry will eventually bring out the truth but questions being raised are very pertinent. At times, there are chances of police officials being misled by their own colleagues.”

About the 28 injuries pointed out in the autopsy report, Narender Singh said, “Police will find difficult to explain so many ante-mortem injuries.”

Twelve of these were bullet injuries and the rest non-bullet wounds — a possibility that the youth was tortured before being gunned down.

Clamour for CBI probe

The incident has meanwhile turned into a case of scoring political brownies in Dehradun. Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Harish Rawat today said the state government has taken “insufficient” steps. “It has caused irreparable damage to the state as well as the state police’s image,” he said.

Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly Harak Singh Rawat also said Dehradun’s image has received a beating and parents of students here are now worried about their safety.

Besides main opposition Congress, Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal and many ruling BJP leaders are supporting the victim’s family’s demand for CBI probe. BJP president and Ghaziabad MP Rajnath Singh reportedly rang up the Uttarakhand CM and asked him to consider demand for a CBI probe.

The Dehradun Bar Association meanwhile boycott work on Monday to protest the ‘encounter’ and sought strict action against policemen involved in the incident.

New city police chief takes charge

DEHRADUN: Abhinav Kumar, a 1997-batch IPS, took charge as the city’s new Senior Superintendent of Police on Monday. He takes over from Amit Sinha, who was removed on Sunday in the aftermath of the questionable encounter of Ranbir Singh.

Kumar, who had a brief stint in journalism before joining the police, comes from Bareilly in UP.