2003 murder case: Pleas against Mishra’s acquittal pending

Lucknow, October 7

In the middle of a controversy over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, Union Minister Ajay Mishra also awaits a High Court verdict on pleas challenging his acquittal in a murder case that goes back 17 years.

Mishra, now the Minister of State for Home, and some others were named in an FIR in connection with the murder of 24-year-old Prabhat Gupta, who was shot in Lakhimpur Kheri district’s Tikonia area in 2003.

The court of an additional sessions judge acquitted Mishra and the others in 2004 for want of adequate evidence. The state government then appealed against the judgment and the deceased’s family too filed a revision petition. The pleas were heard and the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court reserved its judgment on March 12, 2018.

However, before the verdict could be pronounced by the Bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh, it was relisted. This required a further hearing.

The online status on the court’s website shows that the case was last listed for hearing on February 25, 2020. —ndash; PTI

MoS opens event on prison reforms

New Delhi: Union Minister Ajay Mishra, who is in the midst of the Lakhimpur controversy, inaugurated a conference on prisons on Thursday and addressed officers of the prison departments of various states and UTs. TNS