Ayodhya: Almost five years after the Manoj Shukla murder case of Ayodhya, 11 accused have been awarded life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 20,000 on each.
One of the accused, Manuj Mehrotra, has been acquitted due to 'lack of evidence'. The verdict of the Sixth court of ADJ has brought the much needed relief to the victim's family.
The incident dates back to June 12, 2019 when Manoj Shukla was kidnapped from a hotel in the Civil Line area of Kotwali Nagar by Ashish Singh and his associates. His dismembered body was found on the railway tracks three days later.
In a complaint registered on June 13, 2019 Raghavendra Shukla stated that his younger brother Manoj had gone to a hotel to have dinner with Veeresh Singh when he was kidnapped and assaulted by Ashish Singh and his group. A kidnapping case was lodged in Kotwali Nagar police station in this regard.
On June 15, 2019, Manoj's body, which was dismembered into six pieces, was found on the railway tracks in Maskanwa area in Gonda district. He was identified on the basis of a photograph. After investigation, a chargesheet was filed against 12 accused including Ashish Singh, Dharmendra Singh, Vineet Kumar Pandey, Sonu Sonkar, Shyam Kumar Yadav, Shivam Singh, Vikas Tiwari, Manuj Mehrotra, Anish Pandey, Rana Singh, Shravan Kumar Pandey and a minor.
The court has finally convicted 11 of the 12 people who were accused in this case including the main accused Ashish Singh. The accused have been ordered life imprisonment and a fine amounting to Rs 20,000 has been slapped on each of them. The accused were sent to jail amid tight security.
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