While the police claimed Ranbir Singh was shot in retaliatory fire after he snatched a policeman’s revolver during a routine checking and fled into the woods, Singh’s family called it a frame-up. His father Ravinder Singh, an ex-serviceman who has served in the Kargil War, said on Saturday that Ranbir, an MBA from a Meerut institute, had gone to the Uttarakhand capital on Friday to join duty on his first job.

Calling it a “fake encounter”, Singh said the policemen “murdered” his son for gallantry award. The family lives in Niti Khand, Indirapuram, a few kilometres from the Delhi border.

The shooting raked up enough controversy for Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to order an investigation by the Crime Branch of Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID). He issued the orders after Ranbir’s family members and relatives met him this morning.

The state government had earlier ordered a magisterial probe into the case, which has now been withdrawn.

According to Uttarakhand police, Ranbir was riding a motorcycle with two friends last evening when a police team stopped them in Dalanwala, an upscale locality in Dehradun,during a routine checking of vehicles on the eve of President Pratibha Patil’s visit to the hill state.

But the youths, policemen claimed, assaulted a sub-inspector, snatched his service revolver and fled.

The police in Dehradun also claimed that two of the youths were carrying countrymade pistols.

Inspector General of Police (Garhwal range) M A Ganapathy said the registration number of their motorcycle was flashed and a police team intercepted the trio on Dehradun’s Ring Road. Cornered, one of the youths fired at the police and “one of them” (Ranbir Singh) was killed in return fire, Ganapathy said.

“The other two managed to flee,” he said.

Dehradun’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amit Sinha said, “Investigations have revealed that the motorbike recovered from the spot was a stolen vehicle. It belongs to one Ram Mehr of Ahir village in Panipat, Haryana.”

Murdered, says family
But Ranbir’s family rubbished the Uttarakhand police’s claims. His father Ravinder Singh said, “He was a simple boy; there is no criminal record against him. He had completed his MBA from Meerut and was placed by Kotak Mahindra — he had gone to Dehradun to join his new job.”

Singh said it was Ranbir’s first visit to Dehradun.

At the family home in Indirapuram, Ranbir’s aunt Anita Singh said he had called up his mother last evening to say he would be back home on Sunday after joining duty over the weekend. “The police are wrongly implicating him,” she said. “They did not even allow his father to see the body — police asked his father and other relatives to take the body only in front of Doon Hospital.”

Jasbir Singh, an uncle, said, “If he had attacked a sub-inspector, and was chased and gunned down as the police say, the police must bring the two friends they claim were with him. Ranbir had never been to Dehradun — he had no friends there.”

Another relative, Arun Kumar, said Ranbir had received six bullets in the chest. “He would have received bullets in the back and other parts of his body if this was a genuine encounter. Ranbir’s father has served in the Army and knows the difference between a murder and an encounter,” Kumar said. “Six bullets in the chest means he was shot from front, that it was a staged encounter.”

Meanwhile, Neeraj Singh, son of BJP president and Ghaziabad MP Rajnath Singh, visited the family home in Indirapuram on Saturday morning and assured that an independent probe will be ordered. “I spoke with the Uttarakhand CM over the phone and he has assured that Dehradun police will not be involved in the investigations. He said it will be an independent probe,” Singh said.