"I sentence them to life imprisonment," Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar said, pronouncing the quantum of punishment to ten policemen including the then Assistant Commissioner of Police.

The court had, on October 16, held all the accused policemen guilty of gunning down two Haryana-based businessmen Pradeep Goyal and Jagjit Singh at Connaught Place here on March 31, 1997.

Earlier, CBI counsel S K Saxena demanded death penalty for head constable Mahaveer Singh, constable Kothari Ram, whose bullets had killed the victims and ACP Rathi, who had led the operation, saying that their culpability fell under the rarest of rare category warranting capital punishment.

“All the convicted persons were members of a police force and were supposed to be custodians of law and the fact that 34 rounds were fired at the helpless occupants of the car, showed the extreme depravity of their crime," the prosecutor said, while arguing on the quantum of sentence.

He, however, did not seek capital punishment for remaining seven convicts in the case.

Seeking a lenient view, Rathi's counsel, while referring to a Supreme Court judgement, said, "judges should never be blood-thirsty. The criminal courts should not be swayed by sensational nature of offence."

He also said that 54-year-old Rathi, who received several gallantry awards for his services, should not be awarded capital punishment for the act which he committed while performing his lawful duty.

The other convicts in the case also sought leniency from the court.

Besides, the then ACP Rathi, those sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life included Inspector Anil Kumar, SI Ashok Rana, Head Constables Shiv Kumar, Tejpal Singh, Mahavir Singh, Constables Sumer Singh, Subhash Chand, Sunil Kumar and Kothari Ram.

During the trial, the policemen had taken the plea that the businessmen were killed under "mistaken identity" of Yaseen, a dreaded Uttar Pradesh gangster and his associate.