The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court is currently hearing a criminal appeal filed against Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra and others in a 23-year-old murder case on a day-to-day basis since Monday.
The UP government had filed an appeal against Mishra’s acquittal and others in the case in 2004.
“The criminal appeal is regularly being heard by the High Court since Monday. The government advocate is arguing on the appeal,” said Mishra’s lawyer Salil Kumar Srivastava.
The case pertains to the murder of 24-year-old Prabhat Gupta in Lakhimpur Kheri in 2000.
Police had filed a chargesheet against Mishra and others. In 2004, a court of additional session judge in Lakhimpur Kheri acquitted Mishra for want of adequate evidence.
The state government then filed an appeal against the acquittal, while Gupta’s father, Santosh, filed a criminal revision petition challenging the judgment. Both were then connected.
During the pendency of the revision petition, Santosh died. An application was then filed to declare surviving legal heirs of Santosh as revision petitioners.
On Monday, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court allowed the legal heirs of Santosh Gupta to participate as ‘victims’ in the state appeal. The court passed the order on an application to bring on record the surviving heirs of the original revisionist (Santosh Gupta).
“In the present case, however, the connected appeal i.e. Criminal Appeal No.1624 of 2004 instituted by the State is pending against the same very judgment. Therefore, the consequence of abatement of the present revision is inconsequential and does not leave the legal heirs of the revisionist as remediless,” the court stated in its order.
“The legal heirs of the revisionist have an opportunity of participating in the pending criminal appeal instituted by the State as victims, for which, a similar application has been made by the applicants in the connected criminal appeal,” the court added.
On Wednesday, the court took on record the ‘vakalatnama’ filed on behalf of the complainant.