A Central Bureau of Investigation court on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to four policemen who were involved in killing four men in an over two-decade-old staged shootout in Bhojpur, in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh.

On February 20, the court convicted the Bhojpur police station chief, Lal Singh, Sub Inspector Yogendra Singh and constables Ranvir Singh, Surya Bhan and Subhash for being involved in the staged shootout on November 8, 1996.

Ranvir Singh died during the trial.

The court also imposed a penalty of Rs 2 lakh on Lal Singh, Rs 1 lakh on Yogendra singh, Rs 50,000 each on Subhash and Surya Bhan under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

At the hearing, CBI prosecutor Rajan Dahiya, terming the incident rarest of rare, said the motive of the policemen was to get promotion in the garb of a "daring shootout", and they committed cold-blooded murder of Jasbir Singh, Ashok Kumar, Pravesh and Jalalludin.

"The society demands that the policemen be hanged," the CBI prosecutor said.

Countering Dahiya, defence lawyer Shammi Sharma said the shootout was not rarest of rare and only the prescribed punishment -- life imprisonment -- be awarded to the four.