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Years after the erstwhile government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav ordered withdrawal of the case against five persons booked in the case of murder of two persons amid election-related violence in Mainpuri in 1996, the state government has now decided to withdraw the case against 12 persons booked. In killing another person killed in the same engagement.
Two cases were recorded at that time in connection with the killing of three persons – two BJP workers and one Samajwadi Party worker – in Mainpuri.
The clash dates back to 7 May 1996, that was the polling day in the Lok Sabha elections in which former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav contested the Mainpuri seat on the Samajwadi Party ticket. He won the election, defeating BJP candidate Muhaddith Singh Chauhan, who was one of the 12 accused booked in connection with the double murder case. Apart from Chauhan, three other people including Hira Singh died during the trial.
Sources said the BJP government led by Yogi Adityanath recently wrote to Mainpuri District Magistrate, ordering a withdrawal application to be lodged in the court as the murder case is still pending. Asked about this, Mainpuri District Magistrate Avinash Krishna Singh said he needed to check.
According to the allegation, on 7 May 1996, the victim, Ram Bharusai Lal, was with Samajwadi Party workers sitting outside Junia polling station in Mainpuri. Ram Naresh, the complainant and the son of the deceased, claimed that Udesh Singh Chauhan and his associates arrived at the Samajwadi Party polling station in a car and allegedly started verbally abusing the people present there.
When Ram Barosai objected, Upesh Singh and his associates allegedly started beating the victim and also opened fire on him. Then the accused forcibly took Ram Bahrusi from his place and killed him. “They also set fire to the body,” the prosecutor said.
The complainant filed an FIR against 12 persons, including Udesh Singh, at Kora Police Station on numerous charges, including murder, rioting and causing evidence of crime to disappear.
The trial in the case is ongoing and so far, three witnesses have been cross-examined, Mainbury government advocate Pushpendra Dubey said. He denied having been directed by the state government to file a withdrawal application in court. “Of the total of 12 accused, four of them, Updesh Singh Chauhan, have died. The trial of the other two accused, who are out on bail, is pending. Three prosecution witnesses have been cross-examined so far,” Dubey said.
In the same incident, Ahad Sidiyal Singh filed a conflicting FIR against five persons allegedly involved in the murder of Sher Singh and the abduction of Ram Avtar from near the same polling station on 7 May 1996. Sher Singh was shot dead. Of the five defendants booked in the case, four have died. Ram Avatar has remained untraceable ever since.
Ram Avatar, later on, was deemed murdered. In December 2006 the then state government ordered withdrawal of the case against the accused. After the directive, the withdrawal application was moved in the competent court. In May 2010 the court accepted the application and after that the case against the accused was withdrawn. In June 2010 Hira Singh, one of the accused in the murder of Ram Barosi, filed an appeal against the court order.“The appeal is still pending in the court session,” said lawyer Mahendra Baradwaj, who is representing Hira Singh in the court.
Mulayam Singh Yadav was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from August 2003 to May 2007.
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