Supreme Court dismisses plea filed against acquittal of Union Minister Teni in 2000 murder case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed against the Allahabad High Court order upholding the acquittal of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni in the 2000 Prabhat Gupta murder case.

A bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal said that it is not inclined to interfere with the concurrent findings of the courts below and dismissed the special leave petition filed by a family member of the deceased.

In May last year, the Allahabad High Court had dismissed the UP government's appeal filed against the acquittal order passed by trial court in 2004.

A bench of Justices Attaur Rahman Masoodi and Om Prakash Shukla had also dismissed the revision plea under Section 397/ 401 Cr.P.C. filed by the complainant/ revisionist Santosh Gupta, father of deceased Prabhat Gupta.

In 2004, Teni was acquitted by the trial court but the then state government appealed against acquittal in the high court. Student leader Gupta was shot dead near his house in Tikonia in Lakhimpur Kheri and four people including Teni were named as accused.

The others were Subhash Mama, Shashi Bhushan Pinky, and Rakesh Dalu.

Allegedly, Teni had a dispute with the deceased regarding the Panchayat elections, and hence, the latter was shot dead by Teni and other accused.