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Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court today upheld an Allahabad High Court order discharging MLA Akhilesh Singh in the murder of national badminton player Syed Modi.
The verdict was pronounced by a bench comprising Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice Lakshmanan which dismissed an appeal filed by the CBI challenging the high court’s order.
On July 27, 1988, Syed Modi was shot dead in front of the KD Singh Babu Stadium in Lucknow at 7.45 am. He was allegedly killed over an alleged relationship between Congress leader Sanjay Singh and Modi’s wife, Amita Kulkarni Modi.
After examining all the documents, the trial court had held that there was no evidence to nail Sanjay Singh and Amita, and they were discharged on September 17, 1990.
But the court had framed charges against Akhilesh Singh, Amar Bahadur, Bhagwati Singh, Jitender Singh and Balai Singh under Section 120-B read with Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
Akhilesh Singh, leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Congress Dal, had approached the Allahabad High Court challenging the trial court order. The high court discharged him. It was against this order that the CBI had filed an appeal in the apex court in 1997.
