Click to play videoNagpur: Nearly three years after he was allegedly beaten to death, six ABVP activists accused in the case of murder of Professor HS Sabharwal in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, were acquitted by a court on Monday for lack of evidence.
The accused were Vimal Tomar, Pankaj Mishra, Vimal Rajoria, Shashi Ranjan Akela, Hemant Dubey and Sudhir Yadav – all activists of the Sangh Parivar affiliated-ABVP, who were charged with murder and rioting by an unlawful assembly.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Nitin Dalvi, who tried the case after the Supreme Court ordered transfer of the trial from the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, observed that the prosecution has "miserably failed" to prove the case against the accused.
The professor's son, Himanshu, who successfully petitioned the Supreme Court for transfer of the case, claimed that the Sessions judge has noted in his judgement that the accused might be guilty.
The court reportedly could not convict them because of lack of evidence. His family will now challenge the judgement in a higher court, Himanshu said.
Head of the Political Science Department of Madhav College in Ujjain Professor Sabharwal died in August 2009 after a fracas in the college over student union elections when he was allegedly beaten up by the ABVP activists.
Later, he succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.
Television channels on the day of the incident had showed pictures of Professor Sabharwal being taken in a chair, apparently gasping for breath.
The incident caused a major political furore with Congress and other parties in Madhya Pradesh accusing the BJP of protecting the ABVP cadre.
Public Prosecutor Praful Shandilya said when the case was transferred from Ujjain to Nagpur there was "too much of insufficient evidence."
He said he had made an application for further investigations in this case as material has not been collected by the investigating agency.
"The investigating agency is under the state and there was allegation against the political party ruling the state. So it got executed in the manner it wanted," he said.
ABVP lawyer Pushpendra Kaurav said the prosecution had failed to establish that the accused were at the site of the incident.
In all 69 witnesses were examined, which included 51 by the court in Nagpur.
2008: Case moved out of Madhya Pradesh
In March 2008, Supreme Court ordered the transfer of the trial in the Prof Sabharwal murder case from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh to Nagpur in Maharashtra.
A Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat passed the order on a petition filed by the family of the slain professor pleading that the inquiry of the case be handed over to the CBI and the trial be shifted to Delhi.
It was also contended that an independent public prosecutor be appointed to handle the case.
The court, however, decided to shift the case to Nagpur instead after taking the opinion of the accused and the professor's family.
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