MLA gets life term for engineer's murder

Those awarded lifer included, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Dibiyapur police station, who had helped Tewari in the crime and turned a deaf ear to the pleas of the victim’s family to save him.

The wife of the MLA was also held guilty of destroying evidence and was sentenced to two and half years of imprisonment by the court.

Special additional district judge Virendra Kumar also imposed a fine of Rs. 68 thousand each on those awarded lifer and Rs. 4500 on MLA’s wife Vibha Tewari.

Gupta’s family members however said that Tewari and others should have been awarded death sentence.

Gupta, an engineer with the PWD and posted at Auraiya district of UP, was beaten to death on the night of December 24, 2008 by Tewari and his goons after he refused to accede to his demand for money for Mayawati’s B’Day celebrations. Gupta’s murder had evoked sharp protests from the state employees and the opposition parties. Mayawati had thereafter directed that no one should accept any donation for her birth day celebrations.

Hailing the verdict, special public prosecutor I B Singh told IANS  : “This was one of the most difficult cases of my life because there were all kinds of pressures and the accused left no stone unturned to get the case stalled - by whatever means.”

“The accused moved heaven and earth to get the case transferred from this special court headed by a very tough and upright judge, Virendra Kumar. They even opposed the extension of his term as the presiding officer of the special court and when the matter went before the senior judge of the high court, they again moved another application against that on the plea that the senior judge of the high court must not hear it as he was a member of the administrative committee which deals with transfer of judicial officers.”

The trial court had started hearing the case from July 2009.