E-Paper
SC shifts trial in Kanpur businessman’s murder case from Gorakhpur to Delhi
The Supreme Court allowed the petition filed by the businessman’s wife Meenakshi Gupta who sought transfer of the trial to a court outside Uttar Pradesh. The two-judge bench said the accused will be tried in a Delhi court.
The Supreme Court on Friday shifted the trial in the case involving the death of a Kanpur businessman at a Gorakhpur hotel in which six policemen are accused, to a Delhi court.
The businessman Manish Gupta’s wife Meenakshi had approached the top court seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe from the state-instituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) and transfer of trial outside UP.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government informed the court that the state had already transferred the probe to CBI and that it had no objection if the trial was shifted to another state.
Recording this submission, the bench of Justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and AS Bopanna directed the trial to be shifted to a Delhi court after the investigation is complete.
The petition filed by advocate Anand Shankar said, “The petitioner has no faith in the investigation being carried out by the SIT considering the status and power of the accused persons....”
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR in the case earlier this month.
On September 27 this year, 36-year-old Gupta, from Kanpur, had checked in at a Gorakhpur hotel with his two friends to meet a business associate Past midnight, six policemen barged into the hotel room and conducted searches of Gupta and his associates. When Gupta objected, the police assaulted him that led to his death.
Police had earlier denied the charge and said Gupta received a head injury after he fell on the ground as he was drunk.
On September 29, a case of murder was registered against six policemen involved in the raid. The state government later formed SIT and policemen were arrested. In October, the state police recommended CBI probe.
