E-Paper
11 years after murder of Dy SP in U.P’s Kunda, special CBI court convicts 10, acquits one
A CBI court convicted 10 people for the 2013 murder of Kunda officer Zia-ul-Haq, with sentencing set for October 9. One was acquitted.
A special CBI court on Friday convicted 10 people for the brutal murder of the then Kunda circle officer Zia-ul-Haq in March 2013 when the deputy superintendent of police-rank officer was on duty. One person has been acquitted in the case. The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on October 9.
Those convicted have been identified as Phoolchand Yadav, Pawan Yadav, Manjeet Yadav, Ghanshyam Saroj, Ram Lakhan Gautam, Chhotelal Yadav, Ram Aasre, Munna Patel, Shivram Pasi, and Jagat Bahadur Pal.
Haq was killed on March 2, 2013 while on duty when he had reached Ballipur village in Kunda, Pratapgarh district, after four people murdered the village pradhan, Nanhe Yadav.
Haq took Yadav to hospital but he could not be saved. While bringing the body back to the village, Haq was attacked by a mob and shot dead.
THE CASE
Gram pradhan of Ballipur village Nanhe Yadav was shot dead by Kamta Pal’s two sons, Ajay and Vijay, on March 2, 2013.
The incident took place during a meeting convened at around 4pm at the Ballipur village crossing to resolve a land dispute.
Kamta Pal and his two sons Ajay and Vijay and Nanhe Yadav, along with others, were present at the meeting.
After a heated exchange of words between Nanhe Yadav and Kamta Pal in the meeting, Ajay and Vijay shot Nanhe Yadav.
Yadav was rushed to the community health centre where he was declared dead.
The CBI had earlier given a clean chit to the then minister in the Samajwadi Party government Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiya and gram pradhan Gulshan Yadav.
However, the Supreme Court on September 27, 2023, had ordered the CBI to again probe the role of Raghuraj Pratap Singh on a petition filed by Praveen Azad, wife of Zia-ul-Haq.
The top court had set aside a November 2022 order of the Allahabad high court that stayed a trial court’s decision of July 2014, rejecting the closure report submitted by the CBI against Raghuraj Pratap Singh and four of his alleged accomplices, and ordered further probe in the matter.
THE CHARGES
The CBI court convicted the 10 people on several charges under Sections 147 (commission of the offence of rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assaulting public servant to deter him from discharge of his official duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 27 (punishment for using arms) of the Arms Act in the case investigated by CBI.
The CBI took over investigation of case FIR No. 19/2013 of Hathigawan police station in Pratapgarh district, relating to the murder of Zia-ul-Haq, the then CO Kunda.
After completion of the investigation, the CBI filed a charge-sheet on June 7, 2013 against Phulchand Yadav, Pawan Kumar Yadav, Yogendra Yadav alias Bablu, Manjeet Yadav, Ghanshyam Saroj, Ram Lakhan Gautam, Chhotelal Yadav, Ram Aasre, Munna Patel, Shiv Ram Pasi, Jagat Bahadur Pal alias Bulle Pal and Sudhir Yadav in the court of the special judicial magistrate for CBI cases, Lucknow, UP.
Yogendra Yadav alias Bablu died during trial and hence charges against him were dropped.
The other 10 accused have been convicted while Sudhir Yadav has been acquitted.
