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How justice prevailed in the Rocky Yadav road rage case

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Amitabh Srivastava
Amitabh SrivastavaSep 05, 2017 | 12:45

How justice prevailed in the Rocky Yadav road rage case

The mills of gods grind slowly but grind exceedingly small. Former RJD lawmaker Mohammad Shahabuddin and Rocky Yadav, son of a JD(U) lawmaker who shot dead class 12 student Aditya Sachdeva in a burst of road rage, received their convictions within a span of two days.

Shahabuddin was first to receive his due when Patna High Court on Wednesday upheld his life sentence in the 2004 Siwan acid attack case. A day later Rocky too was convicted in a Gaya court.

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In the Siwan case in August 2004, three sons of a Siwan businessman, Chandra Keshwar Prasad, were abducted by Shahabuddin’s goons, taken to the don’s native Pratappur village and bathed in acid, leading to death of two brothers — Girish Raj and Satish Raj — while the third brother, Rajiv Roshan, an eyewitness to the killing, managed to escape.

When the crime took place, Shahabuddin was in jail. But he was found guilty of hatching a conspiracy from behind bars to kill the brothers.

A Siwan court had sentenced Shahabuddin to life imprisonment in December 2015 in connection with the double murder case, which he challenged in the high court. Meanwhile, Rajiv was killed by unidentified men on June 16, 2014.

Shahabuddin had received a major reprieve in March 2016 when a Patna High Court division bench granted him bail on the ground that his name was included in the FIR later. Shahabuddin was released, which sparked a furore. Subsequently, the Nitish government challenged Shahabuddin’s bail order in the Supreme Court, which cancelled his bail, besides directing the Patna High Court to hear the case and conclude the trial at the earliest. The hearing started again at the high court in May this year, leading to upholding of his conviction last week.

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Shahabuddin was released from Bhagalpur jail in September 2016 after he secured bail from the high court. The Supreme Court cancelled his bail on September 30, 2016. In February, Shahabuddin was shifted to Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

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As for Rocky Yadav, he and three others were accused of killing Aditya when the four couldn’t overtake the latter’s car on May 7 last year. Rocky was found guilty of firing the pistol after he couldn’t overtake Aditya’s vehicle.

According to the chargesheet filed in the case, when Rocky finally overtook the vehicle in which Aditya and his friends were travelling, he got down and started thrashing the occupants. When the boys tried to escape, he fired from close range. The bullet hit Aditya’s head after piercing the rear wind shield of the vehicle.

Besides Rocky, the court also held his cousin Teni Yadav and Rajesh Kumar, the bodyguard of his lawmaker-mother Manorama Devi, guilty under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC. Rocky’s father, Bindeshwari Prasad Yadav, better known as Bindi Yadav, has also been declared guilty under Section 212 (providing shelter to an accused) of the IPC. Though the quantum of the punishment will be pronounced on September 6, it looks like the end of the road for Rocky and his father Bindi.

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Rocky was arrested from a factory owned by his father, where he had been hiding for over two days. The cops also found the Beretta pistol, which he had used to fire at Aditya, from his possession. The 14-month trial saw many twists and turns, as Aditya’s friends Ayush, Nasir, Ankit and Kaifi — turned hostile and told the court that they did not see any of the accused open fire. Though they had earlier named Rocky as the culprit in their statements recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), they subsequently disowned their statements during their deposition in the court.

But the police and prosecution must be credited for the investigation and evidence collection, which nailed Rocky. Scientific evidence like call records of Rocky’s phone, a forensic test report of the pistol, among others, were produced before the court to make the case irrefutable.

Earlier, Rocky was granted bail by Patna High Court but the order was quashed by the Supreme Court in October 2016. Aditya’s mother, Chanda Sachdeva, now believes her son has finally got justice. More importantly, the conviction of the rogues should act as a deterrent.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Last updated: September 05, 2017 | 15:30
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