Lucknow, Jul 16 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court on Saturday permitted the withdrawal of a criminal case lodged against former Uttar Pradesh minister Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh in 2007 for an alleged attempt to murder and other charges.

The court's Lucknow bench said that once the state government has moved an application for withdrawal of the case before the trial court and the victim also did not have any objection to it, putting him on trial would be a futile exercise.

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Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh passed the order on the revision petition filed by the Uttar Pradesh government, challenging the special MP/MLA court's order of October 14, 2020 in which it had refused to allow the withdrawal of the prosecution against the former minister.

Allowing the revision plea, the bench observed, “When the complainant ( victim) himself is not supporting the prosecution case, this court is of the view that there is no chance of conviction of the accused in the case.

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"'The case has been pending since 2007 and continuance of trial would be nothing but a futile exercise and the court's precious time would get wasted if the application for withdrawal from prosecution is not allowed.”

A First Information Report was lodged against the former minister and twenty others on May 4, 2007 with Mohanganj police station in Raebareli under various sections of the IPC, including relating to attempt to murder, and the U.P. Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.

The prosecution alleged that during the 2007 UP Assembly elections, Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh contested on a Samajwadi Party ticket while Dinesh Pratap Singh was fielded by the BSP.

It was alleged that Mayankeshwar along with his twenty supporters attacked the house of Dinesh's supporter and manhandled his family in order to eliminate them and put valuable articles on fire.

The police probed into the case and filed a charge sheet and the trial court took cognisance of the offences on July 13, 2007.

The state government decided to withdraw the prosecution and moved an application in the special MP/MLA court in 2019, alleging that the case was lodged due to political reasons as Dinesh Pratap Singh himself was present in the police station at the time of registering the FIR.

It was stated that there was no evidence to prove the complicity of the accused in the case.

On the special court's notice, the victim first opposed the plea but later said that he did not have any objection if the special court allowed withdrawal of the case.

The special court had, however, rejected the state government's withdrawal application, observing that the state could not establish what public interest would be achieved if the case was allowed to be withdrawn.

Moving against Special Court's order, the Adityanath Government pleaded in the high court that the special court's order was not proper as no purpose would be subserved by continuing the prosecution in which neither the state government nor the victim had any interest.

It would be only a waste of valuable time of the court, the state government contended.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)