Gaya, Nov. 22: Charges were framed today in the court of additional district and sessions judge IX Suresh Prasad Mishra against Rakesh Ranjan alias Rocky Yadav and three others in the Gaya road rage murder case that had shocked Bihar and the country.
Rocky, son of Gaya strongman Bindeshwari Prasad Yadav alias Bindi Yadav and (now suspended) suspended JDU MLC Manorama Devi, is accused of shooting dead a 19-year-old schoolboy, Aditya Sachdeva, on May 7 this year. The Bihar government's counsel had told the Supreme Court that Rocky "could not tolerate a small Swift car (in which Aditya and four of his friends were travelling) overtaking his big and imported Land Rover".
Apart from Rocky, 23, who is the prime accused, charges were framed against Rocky's father Bindi, cousin Teni Yadav and constable Rajesh Kumar, bodyguard of Rocky's mother. The charges against the four have been framed under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) - including those dealing with murder, attempt to murder, concealing facts, public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to save person from punishment, furnishing false information - and the arms act, public prosecutor SDN Singh said.
Under Section 302 (murder), the maximum punishment is death and for Section 307 (attempt to murder) the maximum is life imprisonment. In the other sections the quantum of punishment varies to a maximum of seven years in prison, the public prosecutor said.
The charges have been framed nearly four-and-a-half-months after Gaya police submitted the charge sheet on July 6. The delay in framing of charges was because the four accused had filed discharge petitions (plea to absolve from charges) in the same court and the hearings for those were on.
The court rejected all the discharge petitions.
All the four accused were present in the court today where Qaisar Sarfuddin made his arguments as the defence lawyer. On the prosecution side, additional public prosecutors Mukesh Chandra Sinha and Ambashtha Yoganand assisted public prosecutor Singh.
Of the four accused, only Rocky is behind bars. The other three are out on bail.
Rocky was in Gaya Central Jail since May 10, when he was nabbed from a factory owned by his father where he had been hiding. He was released on October 21 after Patna High Court granted him bail on October 19. The state government moved the Supreme Court and after the apex court stayed the bail petition order of the high court, Rocky surrendered in the court of additional district and sessions judge IX Mishra on October 29.
The framing of charges will be followed by evidence and the witness trial. Under witness trial, the four boys who were in the car with Aditya will appear in the court. The boys have already recorded their statement in the court.
Others who will appear for the witness trial will be officials of the forensic science laboratory, the investigating officer, the doctor who conducted the post-mortem on Aditya's body, Aditya's father, brother and a cousin. Exhibits like the pistol seized by the police as murder weapon, the cartridges recovered, Aditya's blood-stained clothes and other evidences collected by the forensics team will also be produced in the court during trial.
