High court acquits another convict in 1992 murder of Ghaziabad MLA Bhati

After acquitting former MP DP Yadav, the Uttarakhand High Court on Tuesday let off another man convicted of killing the then Ghaziabad MLA Mahendra Bhati in 1992.

A division bench of Chief Justice R S Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma acquitted convict Pal Singh alias Lakkar Pala alias Harpal Singh in the MLA's murder case, setting aside the judgment of a Dehradun CBI court against him.

The bench ordered the acquittal and release of the convict Pal Singh ruling that the CBI was unable to collect sufficient evidence against him and the pieces of evidence collected were self-contradictory.

The high court's order came on a special appeal of the convict in the murder case.

The high court had earlier acquitted former MP DP Yadav in the case on November 10.

The decision on the appeals of two other convicts in the case has been reserved.

The case dated back to September 13, 1992 when Ghaziabad MLA Mahendra Bhati was shot dead and a murder case was registered against D P Yadav, Preneet Bhati, Karan Yadav and Pal Singh alias Lakkar Pala and others.

After the intervention of the Supreme Court, the matter was sent to the CBI Court in Dehradun.

On February 15, 2015, the CBI court in Dehradun sentenced the four convicts to life imprisonment. This order was challenged by the four by filing separate special appeals in the high court.