NEW DELHI, 16 December 2006 — A Delhi court yesterdy sentenced to death a senior police officer for battering to death two men 19 years ago.
Terming the offense as the “rarest of the rare,” Delhi High Court Judge Rajinder Kumar ordered that retired Delhi Assistant Police Commissioner Rishi Prakash Tyagi be hanged for murdering two men in police custody.
Judge Kumar threw out Tyagi’s mercy plea that he was a 65-year-old man and had undergone two cardiac surgeries and also slapped a 50,000-rupee ($1,100-) fine on him, the court officials said.
Kumar absolved two subordinates of Tyagi of murder but ordered their imprisonment for between one and three years for trying to protect their boss and for the destruction of evidence. The judge did not fix a date for Tyagi’s hanging.
New Delhi residents Mahender Kumar and Ram Kumar were arrested on Aug. 16, 1987 for brawling with policemen and later Tyagi battered the pair to death in a city police lock-up, prosecutors said.
