Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea of former BSP MP Atul Singh alias Atul Rai, demanding quashing of trial proceedings in a self-immolation case in which a girl and her friend had committed suicide before the Supreme Court after going live on Facebook.
The court said the victim had live streamed the incident on Facebook, accusing Rai and former IPS officer Amitabh Thakur of harassing her. The victim had gone to meet Thakur in Lucknow. Therefore, some part of the incident was committed in Lucknow and in such a situation there is no fault in conducting the trial in the MPMLA court of Lucknow, said the HC in its verdict. A bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan passed the order while dismissing the petition of the former MP. On Nov 20 the court had reserved its judgment which was pronounced on Tuesday. Passing the order, the HC directed the special MPMLA court to expedite the trial proceedings. In its order, the judge observed, "From the material available on record, I am not convinced that there would be manifest injustice or there would be abuse of the process of the court, if such power is not exercised in this case."
Earlier, additional advocate general VK Shahi had opposed the petition and said that Rai and Thakur were accused of instigating the woman and her friend to commit suicide. The woman had filed an FIR against Rai for harassing her . It is alleged that in this case, the victim and her friend were harassed due to which both of them committed suicide in front of the gate of the SC on Aug 16, 2021. The victim also did a live telecast of the incident in which she made serious allegations against the petitioner and Thakur of harassing her. In his petition Rai pleaded that as he was acquitted in the rape case there is no case against him for inciting the deceased and her friend to commit suicide.