By IANS,
New Delhi : A city court Wednesday issued production warrants against former Uttar Pradesh legislator Udai Bhan Singh and eight others for their alleged involvement in the murder of an eyewitness to a triple murder.
Link Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Yadav issued warrants to produce the accused before him Aug 20 after the case was transferred from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi on a plea of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CBI registered the case June 13, 2003 on the orders of the Allahabad High Court.
CBI investigations revealed that Udai Bhan singh, Vishal Singh, Bashir Khan, Ashok Mishra, Rajnath Mishra, Sandeep Kumar Singh, Santosh Singh, Vinod Kumar Singh and Mabud Khan entered into a criminal conspiracy during January-February 2003 to eliminate Rakesh Pandey, an eyewitness, before he could give evidence in the court against Udai Bhan Singh and his associates in the murder of Vakeel Shukla and two others in Gopiganj in Uttar Pradesh.
Udai Bhan Singh is currently undergoing life term of murdering Vakeel Shukla.
Ashok Mishra and Rajnath Mishra tried to induce Rakesh Pandey with a bribe offer of Rs.500,000 from Udai Bhan Singh for not giving evidence in the court.
They allegedly threatened him that he would be killed if he gave evidence.
Rakesh Pandey was shot dead Feb 17, 2003 allegedly by Santosh Singh and his associate.
Udai Bhan Singh was elected to the Uttar Pradesh state assembly in 2002 on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket. Later, he defected to the Samajwadi Party.
Following his conviction in the Vakeel Shukla murder case, he lost membership of the legislative assembly on the direction of the Election Commission of India.