The Delhi high court has asked the government to pay a compensation of Rs 15 lakh each to the families of the two Haryana businessmen, shot dead in March 1997 in Connaught Place by a city police team which mistook them for gangsters.

While asking the Union home ministry to pay the compensation within six weeks, Justice S Muralidhar sought the compliance report of his order within 12 weeks.

Gurgaon businessmen Pradeep Goyal and Jagjit Singh were killed by a Delhi police team, headed by its encounter specialist and former assistant commissioner of police S S Rathee on March 31, 1997.

Rathee and his nine subordinates were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court in 2007. The high court had upheld their conviction and sentence in September 2009.