Court rejects SP MLA plea for withdrawal of criminal case

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Additional District and Sessions Judge-II in Bhadohi, Sanjay Shanker Pandey rejected the withdrawal application on Thursday primarily on the ground that no public purpose would be served by doing so. A detailed order is yet to be made available. Senior Prosecution Officer (Bhadohi) S P Srivastava confirmed that the court has rejected the application.

Mishra was named as the prime accused by complainant Lalta, a resident of Kaulapur village, of barging into his house along with five other named accused in the middle of the night, and beating, threatening, and using caste references while ultimately grabbing his leased land.

A government counsel associated with the case informed that the application for the withdrawal of case against Mishra was made in November 2014.

The case remained unheard due to lack of availability of a judge. The hearing on the application began after Pandey was appointed as ADSJ-II.

“The application mentioned that the withdrawal of the case would be in public interest and in the interests of justice. The court wanted to know as to what specific public purpose or the interest of justice would be served,” said the government counsel. The court rejected the application on this ground, he added.

The case, which is at the stage of ‘evidence examination’, will now proceed uninterrupted with April 23 fixed as the next date of hearing.

The complainant in the case, Lalta, is currently lodged in Naini Central Jail in a criminal case and used to be brought to the court under police custody for testifying. “He had, however, turned hostile during his cross-examination,” said the counsel.

Apart from Mishra, the five others named in the case are Krishna Mohan Tiwari, Jai Prakash Mishra, Nand Lal Pandey, Akhileshwar Pratap Singh and Ashok Shukla.