JUDGMENT

Anish Dayal, J.

1. These appeals have been filed against the judgment of conviction dated 14th March, 2019 passed by the Ld. ASJ (FTC-04), Shahdara, Karkardooma Courts:

a) convicting appellant Kunwar Pal Singh (herein referred to as `A-1') for offence under Sections 365/34 IPC;

b) convicting the police officers - appellant Hindveer Singh (herein referred to as `A-2'), appellant Mahesh Mishra (herein referred to as `A-3'), appellant Pradeep Kumar (herein referred to as `A-5') and appellants Pushpender Kumar and Haripal Singh (herein referred to as `A-6' and `A-7' respectively) for offences punishable under Sections 365/304/220/167/34 IPC;

c) acquitting the police officer - respondent Vinod Kumar Pandey (herein referred to as `A4').

Appeals, Convictions and Sentences

2. Accused No. 1, 2, 3, 5 filed appeals against their conviction and sentence being Crl. A. 537/2019, Crl. A. 624/2019, Crl. A. 622/2019, Crl. A. 488/2019 respectively, and Accused No. 6 and 7 filed Crl. A. 499/2019. Complainant Dalbir Singh also filed three appeals: Crl. A. 1023/2019 for conviction of A-1 under Section 302 IPC; Crl. A. 1024/2019 for conversion of conviction of A-2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 from Section 304 IPC to 302 IPC and proportionate enhancement of the sentence, accordingly; and Crl. A. 1025/2019 against the acquittal of A-4. State of NCT of Delhi, the prosecuting entity, placed submissions in support of the appeals filed by the complainant seeking convictions of the convicted police officers under Section 302/34 IPC.

3. By order dated 20th March, 2019 following sentences were awarded:

Transfer of Case from U.P. to Delhi

4. The Sessions Case No. 89/2008 and Sessions Case No. 85/2008 were transferred from the Court of the Ld. ASJ (FTC-04), Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. to the Court of Sessions Judge, Delhi by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India vide order dated 24th January, 2011 in Trf. Pet. (Crl.) No.D25244/2010. The Hon'ble Supreme Court observed that the manner in which the investigation was conducted after registration of the case at the instance of the petitioner showed that free and fair trial of the case would not be possible within the State of U.P, since the accused were members of U.P. Police Force.

The Complaint

5. FIR No.1004/2006 (Crime Case No. 752A/06) was registered under Section 302 IPC at PS Sector-20, Noida, U.P. upon the written complaint made by Dalbir Singh (father of the deceased) on 2nd September, 2006 which was addressed to SSP, Gautam Budh Nagar mentioning that on 1st September, 2006 at 6:00 p.m., the Noida Police in civil dress took away his son Sonu @ Somveer from the village. On 2nd September, 2006 in the morning, he received information from PS Khurja Dehat that Sonu had committed suicide in PS Sector-20, Noida, U.P. When he reached the place of the post mortem along with his co-villagers, he saw various injuries on the body of Sonu including a burn mark near his ear. He had a serious apprehension that his son was murdered by the police after being tortured and it had been given a colour of suicide. After investigation by CBCID, charge-sheet No.156A was filed against the accused persons, who were police officials stating that accused No.2 to 7 had taken So