Overview
- A Special CBI Court in Lucknow sentenced Vikram Yadav alias Kalia, Brijesh Kumar Yadav alias Munna, and Panna Singh to life imprisonment on Tuesday after convicting them of murder and criminal conspiracy.
- Prosecutors say Vikram fired the fatal shots with a 12-bore country-made pistol while Brijesh rode the scooter used in the attack and Panna took part in the conspiracy.
- The case began with an FIR filed by the victim’s wife after the August 8, 2002 killing near Kaisar Bagh and was later transferred from a local police SIT to the CBI, which filed a chargesheet on August 7, 2003.
- The CBI presented about 50 witnesses during the long trial while the defence declined to examine any, and proceedings against three other accused were abated after their deaths during the case.
- The verdict closes a high-profile file that kept public attention because the victim was a former Lucknow Bar Association president and his daughter Laxmi Singh is now a senior police officer, a fact likely to shape local scrutiny of the probe and trial outcomes.