Rajan Tiwari's Bail Plea Rejected by Patna High Court
Patna: April 28, 2008
A Patna High Court bench comprising Justice Mridula Mishra and Justice Shailesh Kumar Sinha on Monday rejected the bail plea of former legislator Rajan Tiwari in the 1998 killing of Communist Party of India (M) legislator Ajit Sarkar.
After hearing arguments from both the defense lawyers and the prosecution, the court rejected the bail plea of Tiwari while granting relief to Anil Kumar Yadav in the same case.
"My client's only fault was that on the day Sarkar was killed, he was waiting outside with his motorcycle still running. Under intense police pressure and physical torture, my client confessed of playing role in the CPI-M leader's killing. He has been in the prison for last nine years and has throughout maintained his innocence," senior advocate Kanhaiya Prasad Singh said in defense of Tiwari.
CBI advocate Vipin Kumar Sinha, however, countered Singh's argument saying Tiwari had already admitted of participating in Sarkar's murder and was a hardened criminal who continued to threaten other inmates in the prison to establish his supremacy.
In the end, while the court rejected Tiwari's plea, it granted bail to Anil Kumar Yadav who was also at the crime scene when Sarkar was gunned down.
Earlier this year, a special CBI court in Patna had awarded life imprisonments to former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Pappu Yadav, Rajan Tiwari, and Anil Kumar Yadav.
While Tiwari remains incarcerated at Patna's Beur Jail, Pappu Yadav makes his home at the high-security Tihar Jail in New Delhi.
Ajit Sarkar was gunned down by Yadav and his thugs who also killed Sarkar's driver Harendra Sharma and party activist Ashfaqul Rahman in an ambush on June 14, 1998 in Purnia district.
|
