Verdict day in engineer murder case deferred

Justice S N Shukla,who constituted the bench,said petitioners Yogendra Dohrey,Manoj Awasthi,Santosh Tiwari and Ram Babu,who are also among the accused,will not seek any adjournment,and can submit written arguments. The court has quashed six orders of the special court,which were challenged by the petitioners. Three petitions were filed before the court with the prayer that the trial court had closed the arguments of their counsel and reserved the case for judgment on April 15.

PWD engineer Gupta was killed in his Auraiya home in December 2008,allegedly by the MLA and his men. The police had filed a chargesheet against 11 persons,including the legislator,his wife Vibha Tiwari,the then district BSP president Yogendra Dohrey and the then Station Officer of Dibiyapur police station Hoshiyar Singh. Except Vibha Tiwari,who has got the bail,all others are behind bars.

Contesting the petitions,the prosecution filed a short counter-affidavit,stating that several opportunities were given to the petitioners to argue their case but they deliberately and knowingly avoided doing so and moved applications for adjournment to delay the proceedings.

It stated the ordersheet maintained in the trial court will show how the accused persons kept the trial judge waiting all along the day for arguments.

The affidavit filed by Ram Lakhan Pal,Sub-Inspector of Auraiya who was deputed by the district police chief to supervise the day-to-day proceedings in the trial court,said eight opportunities were given to the accused to conclude the argument,but they did not do the same.

“We informed the court that that conduct of the accused persons was to linger and delay the trial. Till now,they have filed 38 petitions in different courts,” said senior advocate IB Singh,who is special public prosecutor.