Engineer murder case: Witness turns hostile

The prosecution then filed an application before the court,requesting it to declare Rajput hostile and allow his cross-examination.

In the cross-examination,which began soon after,Rajput said the prime accused,BSP legislator Shekhar Tiwari,often stayed at the guesthouse,said special prosecutor IB Singh.

The cross-examination will continue on September 14. According to the prosecution,Rajput had earlier told police that on the night of incident,legislator Shekhar Tiwari and others came to the guesthouse and he cooked food for them. After dinner,they asked him to sit in their car and show them the engineer’s house.

When Rajput told them he did not know the house,the men drove the car to the colony’s main gate and took guard Jaiveer Singh along with them. Jaiveer showed them to the house of the engineer and then both Rajput and Jaiveer left the place,according to the prosecution.

Rajput is the second prosecution witness who turned hostile. On August 1,Jai Veer Singh was declared hostile after he told the court that he had made his statement before the police under pressure and that he was detained illegally at the police station.

But three day later,during cross-examination,Jai Veer Singh owned up the statement he had made before the police and admitted that he had taken Tiwari and the other accused to the engineer’s house on the night of December 23.

Manoj Gupta was killed in his house by the legislator and his men after he allegedly refused to pay a huge sum for the celebration of Chief Minister Mayawati’s birthday.

The police later arrested 11 people,including the legislator,his wife Vibha Tiwari,then district BSP president Yogendra Dohrey and then Station Officer of Dibiyapur police station Hoshiyar Singh. Except Vibha Tiwari,who has got bail,all others are behind bars.