Murder case against ex-MLA: Court's verdict on Aug 20

A Delhi court today fixed August 20 for pronouncing the verdict in a murder case of 2003 in which former Uttar Pradesh MLA Udai Bhan Singh and five others are facing trial.
Special CBI Judge Parveen Singh deferred the pronouncement of verdict for next week saying that the order was yet ready. The court had on July 29 reserved the judgement for today.
It had earlier framed charges against the accused under various provisions of IPC dealing with murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and intimidation.
According to CBI, the accused had allegedly conspired and hired two criminals for killing Rakesh Pandey, an eye-witness in a triple murder case, on the morning of February 17, 2003 at Gopiganj police station at Sant Ravidas Nagar district near Varanasi.

Pandey, who had refused to accept Rs five lakh for not deposing in the triple murder case, was threatened and later shot dead allegedly at the behest of Udai Bhan, CBI had said, adding two others had also sustained bullet injuries during the incident.
Initially, the then MLA and nine others were arraigned as accused. However, three accused, Santosh Kumar Singh, Vinod Kumar Singh and Bashir Khan, died during the pendency of trial and another accused, Kallu, was declared a proclaimed offender.
Besides the former MLA, the other accused facing trial in the case are Sandeep Singh, Ashok Mishra, Raj Nath Mishra, Mabud Khan and Vishal Singh.

The case was transferred to the national capital from UP by the Supreme Court on March 28, 2008, on the ground that a fair trial was not possible in the state against the accused leader.