Patna: A local court in Bihar on Thursday found Rocky Yadav, son of a suspended JD (U) legislator, guilty of killing a 19-year-old boy in a road rage case.
Additional district Judge Sachhidanand Singh held Yadav guilty under section 302 of IPC. Rocky's father Bindi Yadav was also held guilty but not under 302. The quantum of punishment will be announced on September 6.
Yadav surrendered in a local court on October 29 last year, a day after the Supreme Court stayed the Patna High Court order granting him bail. The SC had directed that the trial must be completed before September 11, 2017.
Three of the four accused of the case are family members of suspended JD (U) lawmaker Manorama Devi. The accused include Manorama's son Rocky and her husband Bindi Yadav. Rocky is alleged to have killed class XII Student Aditya Sachdeva for overtaking his vehicle on 7 May, 2016.
Rocky and his associates fled the scene soon after the shooting. The police arrested Rocky, his cousin Teni Yadav and Rajesh Kumar, bodyguard of Manorama Devi.
During the last 18 months, the case witnessed several twist and turns, the most important of the twists being the bail granted to Rocky by the then Chief Justice of the Patna High Court Justice Iqbal Ahmad Ansari. The bail was promptly suspended and subsequently cancelled by a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice SA Bode. The HC bail left many tongues wagging in the judicial circles of the state.
Not only that, six key witnesses including four friends of the slain teenager who were eye witnesses in the all-important case turned hostile, thereby causing a major setback to the prosecution.
Sachdeva's friends also retracted from their earlier statement that was recorded before a first class Judicial Magistrate.
The Public Prosecutor was changed mid-way during the trial following the series of witnesses turning hostile. Sartaj Ali Khan replaced SDN Singh as the Public Prosecutor. Not only was Public Prosecutor, the trial court, contrary to normal practice, too changed mid-way.
A few weeks before the conclusion of the trial, the trial was transferred from the court of ADJ IX SP Mishra to the court of ADJ Sachchidanand Singh. The cause of the change of court remains a matter of speculation.
Comments
0 comment