Banda (Uttar Pradesh), July 1 (TIWN) A Banda Special Court has awarded life sentence to 13 members of the erstwhile Thokia gang that had killed six Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UP-STF) personnel to avenge the killing of dacoit Dadua.

Banda’s special judge (anti-dacoity) Nupur pronounced the quantum of punishment, levying a fine of ?20,000 on each of the gang members and if they fail to pay, they would have to serve an additional sentence of six months, said government counsel Jai Prakash Sahu.  Those convicted are Nathu Patel, Dev Sharan Patel, Shankar Singh, Chunbad, Shiv Naresh, Ram Babu, Ashok, Gyan Singh, Dhaniram, Kishori Lal, Dharmendra Pratap Singh, Kalyan Singh and Ram Prasad.  The Thokia gang had ambushed the STF team in the Kolhua forest in Fatehganj police area of Banda on July 23, 2007. The STF personnel killed were part of the team that was returning after gunning down Dadua hours earlier.  Thokia and his men had opened fire with automatic weapons on a vehicle carrying STF men and lobbed grenades. Another team that was behind the vehicle resisted the dacoits who then retreated into the jungles.  Ishwar Deo Singh, Uma Shankar Yadav, Laxman Prasad Sharma, Rajesh Chauhan, Brijesh Yadav and Girish Chandra were killed in the ambush.  The FIR named 17 people and one of them Mohammad Anis was given a clean chit in the investigation. During the trial, the prosecution produced 29 witnesses in the case and none of them turned hostile.