Bahraich DM Kinjal Singh with her husband Abhay, special secretary, IT and Electronics, in court in Lucknow on Friday.

Kinjal Singh was five months old when her father K P Singh, then a DSP-rank police officer, was shot dead by his own men while leading a raid in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda district.

On Friday, Kinjal, now an IAS officer and district magistrate of Bahraich, broke down in tears as a special CBI court in Lucknow sentenced to death three policemen accused of killing her father, and sent five others to jail for life.

After killing Singh, the policemen had dragged 12 residents of Madhopur village in Katra Bazar out of their homes and shot them, claiming subsequently that all the deaths had occurred during an encounter with criminals.

Kinjal left the court premises without responding to questions from reporters, but later said she was satisfied with the judgment.

Her younger sister Pranjal Singh, who is an assistant commissioner of Customs in Ambala, said over the phone: "The day this order is executed will be the day of real justice." Pranjal was born seven months after Singh died.

According to the prosecution, a police team went to the village on the night of March 12, 1982, looking for two criminals, Ram Bhulawan and Arjun Pasi. A group of policemen led by DSP Singh, who was also the circle officer, knocked on the door of one Ram Baran Shukla, where the two criminals were said to be hiding. The police were tipped off by a resident of the village called Nanku, who had old enmity with Ram Baran Shukla.

When no one responded to his knocks, Singh stepped back from the door. As he turned around, sub-inspector R B Saroj shot him in the chest. Singh was declared dead in hospital.

Special Judge Rajendra Singh gave Saroj the death sentence, along with head constable Ram Nayak Pandey and constable Ram Karan Singh.

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