In a far-reaching judgment that would please the Maoists, the supreme Court today ordered that police personnel involved in fake encounters should be given death penalty and hanged.

A division bench consisting of Justices Markandeya Katju and C.K. Prasad passed these orders while directing the surrender of two senior Rajasthan IPS officers, additional DGP Arvind Jain and SP Arshad, allegedly involved in the fake encounter killing of the alleged gangster Dara Singh on October 23, 2006.

“Police personnel are custodians of law and are expected to protect people and not eliminate them as contract killers,” observed the apex court, adding, that fake encounter killings are nothing but cold-blooded brutal murders.

The fake encounter killings should be treated as rarest of the rare offences and the responsible police officials should be given death penalty and hanged, said the bench.

“If the concerned police officials fail to surrender, CBI should arrest them,” directed the court. When the victim’s wife said that Rajender Rathore, a former minister and an accused in the case was also missing, the court said, “The same parameters will apply to the former minister also.”

“Punishment should be ordinary for ordinary people and if the offence is committed by policemen, much harsher punishment should be given to them,” observed the court.