The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Uttar Pradesh police constable, Sandeep Kumar, an accused in the murder of Apple executive Vivek Tiwari, due to lack of evidence. The court also asked Kumar not to misuse the liberty of bail and affect the trial.
"There is no evidence against Kumar. Neither he killed Tiwari nor did he provoke constable Prashant Chowdhary (main accused). Thus, bail is granted to Kumar," said Justice DK Singh.
In his plea, Kumar pleaded innocence as the police charge sheet had initially not named him as a murder accused. The police had booked Chowdhary on the murder charges while Kumar was only booked for assault in the charge sheet.
Both the accused were sent to jail after the charges were framed against them. The police had in its charge-sheet booked Chowdhary on murder charges while Kumar was only booked for assault.
Following this, Kalpana Tiwari, wife of the deceased Apple Executive approached the court to frame a murder charge against Kumar. After hearing Kalpana's plea, the court on March 8 directed Kumar to surrender before it.
Kumar was present at the scene of the crime along with the main accused, constable Chowdhary.
On September 28, 2018, Tiwari was allegedly shot dead by a patrolling constable for refusing to stop his car. On October 2, the post-mortem examination report of Tiwari revealed that he died due to a gunshot injury on the left side of his chin.
During the preliminary investigation, the cop who allegedly shot Apple executive claimed that he fired at the latter's car in self-defence as he tried to run over his motorbike. The bullet was allegedly fired by Constable Chowdhary, while he was accompanied by Kumar.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)