BREAKING: Allahabad High Court Upholds Acquittal Of MoS Ajay Mishra 'Teni' In A 23 Year Old Murder Case

The Allahabad High Court today upheld the acquittal of Union Minister of State for Home, Ajay Mishra Teni in a 23 year old Prabhat Gupta Murder Case..With this, the bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Om Prakash Shukla dismissed UP Govt's appeal against his acquittal order passed by Trial Court in 2004.It may be noted that this case dates back to the year 2000 when a rising student leader named Prabhat Gupta was shot dead near his house in Tikonia (Lakhimpur Kheri). In this case, 4 people including Union Minister Teni were named as accused. In 2004, Teni was acquitted by the lower Court.Against the order of the lower court, a revision plea under Section 397/ 401 Cr.P.C. was filed by the complainant/revisionist (Santosh Gupta/father of deceased Prabhat Gupta) before the HC. The revision was admitted in February 2005 and was connected with the Criminal Appeal filed by the state government against the acquittal order.The case in briefThe allegations against Teni are that he had a dispute with the deceased regarding the Panchayat elections, and hence, the deceased was shot dead by Teni and co-accused Subhash alias Mama. It is the state's case that the testimony of the eyewitness was ignored by the trial court.On the other hand, Teni's case is that the trial court had not found the testimony of the alleged eyewitness to be reliable, and hence, the trial court was justified in acquitting him of the offence.It may be noted that earlier, a co-ordinate Bench of the High Court heard the appeal finally and reserved its order on March 12, 2018, however, the same was released subsequently by the bench on the application filed by the complainant/applicant as the judgment was not delivered after more than six months and the matter was ordered to be listed for final hearing.Thereafter, four years lapsed but the matter could not be heard finally, hence an application for early listing of the appeal for a final hearing was filed earlier in 2022. Hearing the matter on April 7, 2022, a division bench of the High Court directed that the matter be listed for final hearing on May 16, 2022, before the appropriate Bench.Despite the Division bench's order, the judgment in the case could not be delivered, and the case was adjourned at least 8 times (till October 17, 2022).In October 2022, the Supreme Court rejected Teni's prayer to transfer the instant Government appeal from Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench to Prayagraj Bench. Instead, the bench of the then Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justice Bela M. Trivedi made a request to the High Court to hear the appeal for disposal on November 10, 2022, the date given by the High Court and agreed upon by Senior Counsels for both the sides.Though the matter was reserved for a verdict on November 30 last year, the Allahabad High Court on December 21, 2022, posted the matter for 'final hearing' in the third week of January 2023 after one Rajeev Gupta, claiming himself to be the son of the complainant (also revisionist), Santosh Gupta, sought to move an application for permission to submit written arguments on behalf of revisionist.Finally, after hearing the revisionist and allowing him to participate as a 'Victim' in the State's appeal moved before the High Court challenging Teni's acquittal, the Court again reserved the verdict in the matter in February this year.AppearancesCounsel for Appellant: A.H.Rizvi, Avanindra Singh Parihar, Government Advocate, Nagendra Mohan, Sushil Kumar SinghCounsel for Respondent: S.K. Shukla, Armendra Pratap Singh, Brij Mohan Sahai, Pradeep Chaurasia, Purnendu Chakravarty, Salil Kumar Srivastava, Sumit Kumar SinghCounsel for Revisionist: Sushil Kumar Singh, Armendra Pratap Singh, Pradeep ChaurasiaCounsel for Opposite Party: Govt.Advocate, Rajiva DubeyCase Title - State of UP vs. Ajai Mishra @ Taini And 3 Ors along with a connected criminal revision pleaCase Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (AB) 157Click Here To Read/Download Judgment

BREAKING: Allahabad High Court Upholds Acquittal Of MoS Ajay Mishra 'Teni' In A 23 Year Old Murder Case

Sparsh Upadhyay

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