48 hours on, police flip story, say suspects shot dead by accomplices

In a glaring flip-flop, Fazilka police have contradicted their own version of Tuesday's encounter near Abohar, now claiming that two suspects in the murder of businessman Sanjay Verma were not killed by police but by their own accomplices.

- Gaurav Sagar Bhaskar

Just 48 hours earlier, senior police officers had publicly announced that Ram Rattan and Jaspreet Singh were gunned down in retaliatory police fire during a weapon recovery operation.

But in a complete U-turn, the FIR, made public on Thursday, states that the two men were shot dead by their unidentified accomplices who ambushed the police team.

On Tuesday, Ferozepur Range DIG Harmanbir Singh Gill and Fazilka SSP Gurmeet Singh, ina video statement, had said, “The two suspects, Ram Rattan and Jaspreet, had given a lift to the trio that gunned down Sanjay Verma. During interrogation, they confessed to hiding the murder weapon and the assailants’ clothes near Peer Tibba, around 1.5 km from Abohar.”

DIG Gill had added that a police team led by Abohar DSP (City) Sukhwinder Singh took the suspects to the location for recovery. However, their accomplices were already present at the spot and opened fire at the police. In retaliatory firing, both Ram Rattan and Jaspreet sustained bullet injuries and later died. A .30-bore pistol was recovered from the encounter site.