After 16 years, life term for 10 in Meerut triple murder case

Meerut: A court on Monday sentenced 10 people to life imprisonment in the Gudri Bazaar triple murder case here, after 16 years of trial in one of the most sensational killings in the district.

Additional District Judge (Special Court Anti-Corruption-2) Pawan Kumar Shukla also impose a fine of around Rs 1.25 lakh in total on the convicts.

A large contingent of police and PAC was deployed at the court during the proceedings.

According to Additional District Government Counsel (Criminal) Mukesh Mittal, on August 2, the court found Ijlal Qureshi, Afzal, Maharaj, Kallu alias Kalua, Ijhar, Munnu Driver alias Devendra Ahuja, Wasim, Rizwan, Badruddin, and Sheeba Sirohi guilty of the charges against them.

All the convicts are currently in jail.

Two other accused in the case -- Israr and Majid -- have died. Another accused, Shammi, is in jail and his trial is ongoing while Parvez's appeal is pending in the Allahabad High Court.

The case dates back to May 23, 2008, when the bodies of three youths were found near the Hindon river at Balaini, on the border of Baghpat and Meerut districts. They were identified as Sunil Dhaka (27) of Jagriti Vihar, Puneet Giri (22) of Parikshitgarh Road, and Sudhir Ujjwal (23) of village Sirsali, Baghpat.

It was alleged that Sheeba was in a relationship with Ijlal, the main accused. She was also seeing Sudhir Ujjwal. However, this was not liked by Ijlal who confronted Sheeba but she told him that Sudhir was interested in her and incited Ijlal for the killing.

Police investigations revealed that the trio were murdered on the night of May 22 in the Gudri Bazaar area by Ijlal along with his brothers and accomplices after calling Sudhir and his friends over to his place.

Police filed charges against 14 accused in the case, including Sheeba, who was charged with incitement to murder.

The sensational case had garnered significant attention in Uttar Pradesh.

In protest against the murders, thousands of college students had formed a non-political organization and called for a shutdown of Meerut on May 25, 2008. The entire district had observed an unprecedented shutdown with heavy deployment of police and PAC.