In a big jolt to former Samajwadi Party MlA Vijay Singh, the lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday upheld the life sentence given to him and his accomplice Sanjeev Maheshwari in the gruesome murder of BJP leader and former minister Brahmadutt Dwivedi in Farrukhabad 20 years ago.
Vijay Singh, who was on bail and had contested the recent state assembly elections on Samajwadi party ticket from Farrukhabad, was taken in to custody and sent to jail by the High Court.
A division bench comprising Justices Ajai lamba and Vijay laxmi upheld the lower court judgment of life term to both the accused pronounced in 2003.
Brahmadutt Dwivedi, a senior BJP leader, was murdered on February 10, 1997 in Farrukhabad and UP government handed over the case to the CBI. In 2003, the Special CBI court convicted Vijay and Sanjeev in the murder and awarded life term imprisonment to both the accused. Vijay Singh had challenged the special courts verdict in the high court which had stayed the order and also granted bail to him. Sanjeev Maheshwari was not granted bail by the high court.
Vijay won from Farrukhabad assembly seat in 2007 on SP ticket but later joined the BSP. In 2012, he won as an Independent and again joined the ruling SP. In 2017 elections, he was the SP candidate but lost to Major Sunil Dutt Dwivedi of BJP, son of the slain Brahmadutt Dwivedi by around 60,000 votes from the same seat.
Welcoming the High Court's decision, Major Sunil Dutt Dwivedi said that at last law prevailed and after 20 years of legal fight, he could get the justice of his father's murder.