Dara encounter: HC grants bail to suspended IPS officer gets bail

Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court on Friday granted bail to suspended IPS officer A Ponnuchami in the Dara Singh fake encounter case after in jail for over five years.
Justice Banwari Lal Sharma granted bail to Ponnuchami, who was posted as IG of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police at the time of the encounter, considering the fact that only one of the 13 of the accused statements has been recorded so far.The High court had in February this year had directed the trial court to complete the trail in the case within three months.
The charge sheet has been filed and he is unlikely to influence the witnesses, the court said, adding that other key accused in the case have already been granted bail.
The court gave him bail on a bail bond and surety of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh each, said his counsel AK Gupta. Ponnuchami, a 1991-batch IPS officer, was arrested in May, 2011. It may be noted that most of the witnesses in the case had turned hostile including his wife who was the complainant.
A bootlegger of Jhunjhunu, Dara Singh was allegedly killed by the SOG of Rajasthan Police in an encounter on the outskirts of Jaipur on October 23, 2006.
The case drew wide attention after BJP leader and minister Rajendra Singh Rathore was named an accused in the case and was arrested by CBI, which was investigating the case. Rathore was later acquitted by a lower court. Another IPS officer then ADG AK Jain was also discharged by the court earlier.
Besides Ponnuchami, several other police officers were accused in the case.