New Delhi/Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Friday told the Supreme Court that the murder charge has been added to the FIR against eight persons, including five Gurgaon policemen, who were part of a team that killed dreaded Haryana gangster Sandeep Gadoli in an “encounter” at a Mumbai hotel on February 7. The Gurgaon cops are in for a legal battle like those Mumbai cops who were held in 2006 for the fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhanbhaiyya, an aide of gangster Chhota Rajan. During the hearing on a petition filed by Sandeep’s brother Kuldeep Singh accusing the Gurgaon police of eliminating his brother in a fake encounter, Maharashtra’s counsel informed a vacation bench of Justices P C Pant and Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud that the Special Investigating Team (SIT) of Mumbai police has added Section 302 to the FIR. A report filed by ACP Avdhut Chavan, heading the probe, said the investigation so far has found that the FIR lodged by Gurgaon police sub-inspector Praduman Yadav, who was leading the police team, with the MIDC police after the shooting was false. “The alleged encounter (in the FIR) is found to be a fake one. It is disclosed that the first informant (Yadav) and his four associates in conspiracy with three others have killed the accused and staged the encounter,” the report said. Mumbai police said now they will move the local court and issue non-bailable arrest warrants against all the eight involved in the killing, including two private persons. “All the suspects have gone underground and are not available. Now we will take the help of Gurgaon cops to arrest them,” said an officer. Gadoli’s brother Kuldeep, through counsel Sanjay Parikh, said the petitioner was challenging the Bombay high court’s refusal to register a second FIR against top Gurgaon police and conducting of inquest by a judicial magistrate instead of an executive magistrate. The bench kept the petition for further hearing on July 13 after recording the statement of the Maharashtra counsel that the probe being conducted by Mumbai police would include investigation into murder charges. This February 5, a Gurgaon police team headed by Yadav and including seven others had killed Gadoli in an alleged encounter inside Hotel Airport Metro in Andheri. Gadoli’s family had refused to claim the body, saying the police had killed him at the behest of rival gangster Vijendra Gujjar.

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