{
 "record_id": "CW-2024-0042",
 "status": "current",
 "merged_id": "CWC-0878",
 "alias_merged_ids": [],
 "display_title": "The State of Jharkhand vs RPF Constable",
 "display_title_redacted": "The State of Jharkhand vs RPF Constable",
 "state": "Jharkhand",
 "district": "Ramgarh",
 "district_at_time": null,
 "city_town": "Barkakana",
 "police_station_or_unit": "RPF Post, Barkakana, Ramgarh",
 "court": "Jharkhand High Court",
 "court_as_verified": "Jharkhand High Court",
 "bench": null,
 "case_title": "The State of Jharkhand vs RPF Constable",
 "case_number": "Death Reference No. 4 of 2023 with Criminal Appeal (DB) No. 588 of 2023",
 "citation": "2024 LiveLaw (Jha) 154",
 "judges": [
  "Ananda Sen",
  "Gautam Kumar Choudhary"
 ],
 "judgment_date": "2024-09-19",
 "date_precision": "day",
 "judgment_year": 2024,
 "incident_date": "2019-08-17",
 "incident_year": 2019,
 "category": "Other",
 "admin_category": "brutality",
 "admin_subcategory": "other",
 "subcategory": "other",
 "subcategory_display": "other",
 "protest_override_heuristic": false,
 "outcome_type": "conviction_upheld",
 "sections": [
  "IPC 302",
  "IPC 307",
  "Arms Act 1959 s.27"
 ],
 "officers": [
  {
   "name": null,
   "rank": "Constable",
   "role": "convicted",
   "unit": "RPF Post, Barkakana",
   "publish_grade": "unnamed",
   "gate_reasons": [
    "ledger:no_row",
    "key2:no_row"
   ],
   "ledger_role": null,
   "key2": null,
   "key2_agy": null,
   "key2_claude": null,
   "key2_union": null,
   "key2_gemapi": null,
   "key2_openrouter": null,
   "key2_gpt56": null,
   "grok": null,
   "jev_risk": null,
   "jev_p_culpable": null,
   "key2_gpt": null,
   "later_outcome": null,
   "name_public": null,
   "display": "Constable, RPF Post, Barkakana"
  }
 ],
 "officer_count": 1,
 "victims": [
  {
   "age": 55,
   "gender": "male",
   "name": null,
   "descriptor": "Barkakana man, age 55"
  },
  {
   "age": 39,
   "gender": "female",
   "name": null,
   "descriptor": "Barkakana woman, age 39"
  },
  {
   "age": 32,
   "gender": "female",
   "name": null,
   "descriptor": "Barkakana woman, age 32"
  },
  {
   "age": null,
   "gender": "female",
   "name": null,
   "descriptor": "Barkakana woman"
  },
  {
   "age": null,
   "gender": "male",
   "name": null,
   "descriptor": "Barkakana man"
  }
 ],
 "victims_redacted": null,
 "anonymised": false,
 "victim_count": 5,
 "sentence_type": "mixed",
 "sentence_max_years": 25,
 "compensation_inr": null,
 "force": "railway",
 "primary_source_url": "https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/display-1-563724.pdf",
 "secondary_sources": [
  "https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/jharkhand-high-court/jharkhand-high-court-firing-unlicensed-prohibited-arms-invites-conviction-under-section-27-arms-act-not-service-pistol-271366",
  "https://lawtrend.in/jharkhand-rpf-constable-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-three-of-family/"
 ],
 "summary": "The judgment of the Jharkhand High Court records the following account. On 17 August 2019 RPF constable, posted at Barkakana, opened indiscriminate fire with his service pistol on his neighbour milk-supplier's unarmed family when asked for milk dues, killing three members including a pregnant woman and injuring two. The trial court convicted him under sections 302 and 307 IPC and section 27 of the Arms Act and sentenced him to death. The Jharkhand High Court upheld the murder convictions, held section 27 Arms Act was not attracted to a licensed service pistol, answered the death reference in the negative, and commuted the sentence to rigorous imprisonment of not less than 25 years without remission plus fines. Matters not addressed in the cited judgment text are not recorded here.",
 "summary_verified": "On 17 August 2019 RPF constable, posted at Barkakana, opened indiscriminate fire with his service pistol on his neighbour milk-supplier's unarmed family when asked for milk dues, killing three members including a pregnant woman and injuring two. The trial court convicted him under sections 302 and 307 IPC and section 27 of the Arms Act and sentenced him to death. The Jharkhand High Court upheld the murder convictions, held section 27 Arms Act was not attracted to a licensed service pistol, answered the death reference in the negative, and commuted the sentence to rigorous imprisonment of not less than 25 years without remission plus fines.",
 "court_quote": "The victims were unarmed persons, whereas the appellant was a Constable in RPF who resorted to indiscriminate firing by service pistol.",
 "court_quote_para": "11",
 "confidence": "high",
 "verdict": "accept",
 "verdict_note": "RPF constable's triple-murder conviction upheld; death commuted to 25 years RI without remission.",
 "verification_status": "V2",
 "verification_badge": "V2 · Externally reported",
 "tier_badge": "Externally reported",
 "tier": "Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded",
 "tier_history": [
  "Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded"
 ],
 "allegations": [
  {
   "category": "Other",
   "primary": true,
   "position": "Material fact supported",
   "position_explainer": "Reliable material supports a specifically documented fact relevant to that allegation, not necessarily the full allegation, causation, intent, unlawfulness, or responsibility.",
   "official_finding_relation": "supports allegation"
  }
 ],
 "institutional_response": [
  {
   "date": null,
   "action_type": "Conviction",
   "status": "Concluded",
   "authority": "Trial court (as recorded in the Jharkhand High Court judgment)",
   "independence": "External",
   "legal_effect": "Binding",
   "description": "The trial court convicted the accused police personnel, as recorded in the Jharkhand High Court judgment.",
   "disposition": "Conviction · Supports allegation",
   "source": "2024 LiveLaw (Jha) 154",
   "recheck": "Not yet re-checked."
  },
  {
   "date": "2024-09-19",
   "action_type": "Order issued",
   "status": "Concluded",
   "authority": "Jharkhand High Court",
   "independence": "External",
   "legal_effect": "Binding",
   "description": "The Jharkhand High Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the convictions of police personnel.",
   "disposition": "Conviction · Supports allegation (appellate affirmance; trial conviction separate card)",
   "source": "2024 LiveLaw (Jha) 154",
   "recheck": "Not yet re-checked."
  }
 ],
 "later_proceedings": [],
 "final_outcome_url": null,
 "followup_history": [
  {
   "date": "2026-09-19",
   "scope": "Round-8 full re-verification: published record re-checked against the judgment text (outcome, officers, quote, key facts) plus methodology-compliance pass",
   "method": "skills-guided adversarial re-verification of the published record against the judgment text (reverify/t1-*/adversarial-8.jsonl)",
   "result": "holds",
   "corrections_applied": []
  }
 ],
 "followup_status": "checked",
 "last_checked": "2026-09-19",
 "link_checked_per_url": [
  {
   "url": "https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/display-1-563724.pdf",
   "link_checked": null
  },
  {
   "url": "https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/jharkhand-high-court/jharkhand-high-court-firing-unlicensed-prohibited-arms-invites-conviction-under-section-27-arms-act-not-service-pistol-271366",
   "link_checked": null
  },
  {
   "url": "https://lawtrend.in/jharkhand-rpf-constable-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-three-of-family/",
   "link_checked": null
  }
 ],
 "source_assessment": {
  "established": null,
  "basis": null
 },
 "v3_basis": null,
 "publication_basis": null,
 "reviews": [],
 "retracted": {
  "is_retracted": false
 },
 "fidelity_checked": true,
 "verified_by": [
  "chunk-72"
 ],
 "merged_case_id": "GAP2-48-001",
 "officers_named_public": 0,
 "record_flag": null,
 "service": "police",
 "watch": "babuwatch"
}