LUCKNOW: A CBI court on Friday held as many as 47 cops guilty of killing 11 Sikh pilgrims in a fake encounter in Pilibhit about 25 years ago. The court took 20 policemen, who were present, into custody, and sent them to jail, while Non Bailable Warrant (NBW) was issued against the remaining 27, who did not appear before it at the time of pronouncement of the verdict.The court will hear the convicts before announcing quantum of sentence on April 4.Convicting the accused cops under Sections 302, 364, 365, 218 and 117 read with 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), judge Lalloo Singh said that there was ample evidence against these persons for kidnapping and conspiring to kill the pilgrims in name of terrorists.According to the CBI prosecutor SC Jaiswal, the incident took place on July 12, 1991. A group of Sikh pilgrims was returning by bus after visiting Nanakmatha, Patna Sahib, Huzur Sahib and other holy places. The police intercepted the bus near a bridge at Kachhalaghat in Pilibhit at around 11 am. Eleven Sikhs were forced to step down the bus. Later, they were killed in encounter shown in different police stations. It was said that they were terrorists and had fired on cops. Illegal recovery of arms was also shown from the deceased. In regard to the incident, FIRs were registered at Vilsanda, Puranpur and Nauria police stations.Later, a lawyer RS Sodhi filed a PIL before the Supreme Court which handed over the probe to the CBI. After investigation, the CBI found that the Sikhs were innocent and were killed in fake encounter in which station officers, sub-inspector and constables of different police stations were involved. It filed charge-sheet against 57 police men on June 12, 1995. Ten accused died during trial. The court had framed charged against the accused on January 20, 2003.