[1] On 5 March 2013 three police personnel were given capital punishment and five others were given life-time imprisonment by the special CBI court in Lucknow.
[5][6] An alleged group clash had occurred on the night of 12 March 1982 in Madhavpur village located within the Katrabazar police station area in Gonda district.
[9] The reason for the alleged killing is said to be the enmity between Deputy Superintendent of police, K P Singh, and his subordinates, whom he suspected of having close co-operation with the local criminals.
Yashpal Singh, then SP of Gonda (later DGP of UP Police from Jan 2005 to Apr 2006), started the investigation.
On 5 April 2013, the CBI court judge Rajendra Singh announced death penalty for three policemen and life imprisonment for the five remaining accused.
[12][18][19] The CBI's special public prosecutor Sanjai Kumar mentioned that the encounter took place on the night of 12 March 1982, when the chief conspirator R B Saroj executed the plan to kill the then DSP K P Singh with other police men.
"[15][21] The CBI judge also said, "The manner of the killing of DSP KP Singh and 12 villagers and thereafter creating false encounter memo and fake recovery memos makes it rarest of rare case," and turned down the appeal from the accused side to deliver a lighter punishment.
[9] The main accused RB Saroj who was posted as a sub-inspector in Gonda in 1982 claimed to have been implicated by the CBI in the case only because the investigators had wanted to give a clean chit to the senior officers.
The court on pronouncing the verdict said, "The evidence on record indicated conspiracy at a high level but the CBI kept its eyes closed,".