A particular court docket of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday awarded life time period to Raja Kolandar alias Ram Niranjan Kol, a former Central Ordnance Depot employee-turned-occult practitioner additionally accused of cannibalism and cranium assortment, and his confederate Bachh Raj Kol in a double homicide case courting again to 2000.
Raja Kolandar alias Ram Niranjan Kol. (HT Photograph)
The 2 had been convicted for the kidnapping and homicide of businessman Manoj Kumar Singh and his driver Ravi Srivastava in 2000. The court docket additionally imposed a penalty of ₹2.5 lakh every on the duo.
The prosecution had sought loss of life penalty, however the court docket dominated that the case didn’t meet the factors for the “rarest of the rare” class resulting from inadequate proof. Consequently, it sentenced the 2 to life imprisonment.
That is the second life time period awarded to them 25 years after the crime. Earlier, they had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012 for murdering a journalist, Dhirendra Singh, in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) in 2000. Throughout that investigation, 14 human skulls labelled with victims’ names had been exhumed from his pig farm in Pipri village of Prayagraj.
Now aged 63, Kolandar is lodged in Lucknow district jail, whereas 40-year-old Bachh Raj Kol is incarcerated in Prayagraj jail. Raja was produced in court docket in individual for the sentencing, whereas Bachh Raj joined the proceedings by way of video convention.
The particular choose of CBI court docket, Lucknow, Rohit Singh awarded life imprisonment to the duo beneath Part 396/34 of the Indian Penal Code (dacoity and homicide with frequent intention) and a fantastic of ₹1 lakh every, ten years’ rigorous imprisonment beneath sections 364 (abduction) and 412 (retaining stolen property) together with ₹1 lakh fantastic for every part, and 7 years’ imprisonment beneath Part 201 (destruction of proof) and a fantastic of ₹50,000 every.
The court docket order, a duplicate of which is with HT, acknowledged that the incident was allegedly held on January 23, 2000, and the FIR was lodged relating to the disappearance of the businessman and automotive proprietor, and his driver at Naka police station on January 27, 2000. The CBI filed the chargesheet in court docket almost after 14 months of investigation on March 21, 2001. The trial in court docket obtained delayed resulting from a number of causes.
Raja Kolandar’s spouse Phoolan Devi, who was additionally co-accused within the case, has already been awarded life sentence as her trial continued individually.
Haunted document of Raja Kolandar:
The conviction and sentence by the CBI court docket added to an already grisly legal document of Raja Kolandar and his brother-in-law Bachh Raj Kol, who had been earlier sentenced to life imprisonment by an Allahabad court docket in 2012 for the homicide of journalist Dhirendra Singh.
Initially named Ram Niranjan Kol, a resident of japanese Uttar Pradesh and belonging to the Kol tribe, a scheduled tribe in India, he labored on the Central Ordinance Retailer in Naini, Prayagraj, and was additionally lively in politics. His spouse was elected as a district panchayat member. Raja was into money-lending enterprise which helped him enhance his monetary situation.
Recognized for his eccentric and delusional character, he believed himself to be a king who may punish anybody he disliked. He named his spouse Phoolan Devi, and his sons Adalat and Zamanat.
He was accused of being a cannibal and cranium collector after a number of skulls had been recovered from his pig farm.
It was alleged that he used to chop off the heads and make soup out of the mind and drink it. Raja and his brother-in-law had been booked for kidnapping and murdering Manoj Kumar Singh, 33, and his driver Ravi Srivastava, 25 years in the past within the yr 2000.
To recall, Manoj had left Lucknow for Rewa (Madhya Pradesh) in his automotive alongside along with his driver Ravi. En route, they picked up six passengers, together with a girl, from Charbagh railway station space. Their final recognized location was Manoj’s home in Rae Bareli’s Harchandpur the place they took a halt on their method to Allahabad on January 23, 2000.
Manoj’s brother testified that he and his brother spoke to the duo once they stopped, and observed that one of many passengers was unwell. The car and its occupants had been by no means seen once more. Three days later, a lacking report was filed.
The mutilated our bodies of Manoj and Ravi had been present in Shankargarh forest space in Prayagraj. The brother recognized a brown coat, allegedly belonging to Manoj, which was recovered from the residence of Raja Kolandar, with a label from a Rae Bareli tailor. He additionally testified that the accused, his spouse Phoolan Devi and others had been current within the car.
The total horror got here to gentle after the homicide of journalist Dhirendra Singh surfaced following the disappearance of Manoj and Ravi. His decapitated physique was recovered close to Rewa from the UP-MP border. Dhirendra’s head was not discovered even after looking out the complete forest the place his physique was recovered. Investigation revealed that Raja was seen on a motorcycle with Dhirendra on the day he disappeared.
Raja was referred to as in for questioning relating to the disappearance of the journalist, and he admitted to killing Dhirendra Singh first. Nevertheless, it was later established that they’d solely killed Manoj and Ravi.