The Allahabad high court today upheld the life sentence awarded by a trial court to former SP MLA Vijay Singh and his accomplice Sanjeev Maheshwari alias Jeeva in connection with murder of BJP leader Brahmadutt Dwivedi and his gunner.
Dismissing two appeals by the two convicts, a Lucknow bench of Justices Ajai Lamba and Vijay Laxmi said, "On going through the totality of the evidence, we have no hesitation to affirm the well-merited findings recorded by the court below. The two accused Vijay Singh and Sanjeev Maheshwari were found to have acted in concert and attacked the deceased and injured armed with deadly weapons likely to cause death."
"The charges are sufficiently proved by substantive and acceptable evidence. The murder, though of a person alleged to be of a mixed record, his gunner and attempt to commit murder of his driver seem to be a calculated one and the manner in which it was got executed by the accused acting in unison in a pre-planned manner to achieve their design, has been rightly held to answer the definition of murder and attempt to commit murder by the trial court", the bench observed.
The court directed Singh to surrender before the court of Additional Sessions judge on June 5 whereas Jeeva is already in jail in another case.
While pronouncing the verdict, the court said that the FIR was lodged promptly and there was no discrepancy in the prosecution case.
It found that the testimony of three eye witnesses namely, Sudhanshu Dutt Diwedi, Prabhu Dutt Diwedi and Vijay Kumar Dubey alias Kunnu Mama along with other corroborative evidences were sufficient to prove guilt of the accused.
Dwivedi along with his gunner was murdered on February 10, 1997 when returning from a Tilak Ceremony in Farukhabad district.
His driver Sher Singh alias Rinku had received serious injuries in the incident. The FIR was lodged with city police station, Farukabad on February 10, 1997 itself by nephew Sudhanshu Dutt Diwedi.
Later, the probe was transferred to CBI on February 10, 1997. The CBI had forwarded charge sheet against as many as eight accused. The trail court had framed charges against the accused on January 23, 2001. During trial accused Ramesh Thakur died.
The trail court on July 17, 2003 convicted Singh and Jeeva for commission of murder of Dwivedi and his gunner and also committing murderous assault on his driver, while acquitting other accused persons.
Singh and Jeeva had appealed to the HC against the trial court verdict in 2003.
The appellants had pleaded that there was no adequate testimony to prove guilt of the accused. It was added that the conviction was based on interested witnesses and fractured evidence.
Declining the pleas, the HC today dismissed the appeals and upheld the conviction and sentences.
The court also said that the conduct of investigating agency was not above board.
Vijay Singh was former SP MLA and had also contested this year's assembly polls as Samajwadi Party candidate but lost to BJP's Major Sunil Dutt Dwivedi, who is son of slain BJP leader Brahmdutt.
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