Jail van double murder not pre-planned: court

Conspiracy charge dropped in 2015 case

A city court has dropped charges of criminal conspiracy against alleged gangster Neeraj Bawana and his six co-accused in a case of jail van double murder two years ago.

Bawana and his accomplices were being transported from Rohini court to Tihar jail in a prison van when they allegedly attacked two fellow prisoners, belonging to a rival gang, and killed them in August 2015.

Gang rivalry

They were discharged of the conspiracy charge on August 23. The deceased, Paras alias Goldy and Pradeep, both in their early 30s, were members of a gang that was earlier led by Neetu Dabodia, a notorious criminal and a known rival of Bawana.

Dabodia was killed in an encounter by the Delhi Police in 2013.

‘Planned murders’

The police booked the seven prisoners for murder, criminal conspiracy, rioting and unlawful assembly, and told the court that they had hatched a conspiracy to kill the two. The charge sheet in the case stated that murders were pre-planned.

Appearing for Bawana, counsel Pradeep Rana argued before the Rohini court that it was a matter of chance that rival gang members were travelling in the same van and the accused could not have planned to commit the murders as they were not aware that the victims would be travelling with them in the same vehicle.

Similar arguments

Counsels for the other accused also made similar arguments. For one of the accused, Sunny, the defence claimed that he was an innocent occupant in the van as he suffered no injuries during the alleged scuffle that led to the two deaths. Since the deceased were punched and kicked repeatedly, the other accused had suffered some injuries themselves.

Dropping the criminal conspiracy charge, ASJ Manu Rai Sethi observed that the defence had submitted that no “accused had control over co-passenger”.

On imposition of Section 149 IPC (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), the court order said that the assembly may have become unlawful later but it was not common intention and it was not so from its inception.

The murder charges against the accused would stay, the court said.