When the state votes in the final phase of the Assembly polls on Friday, a court will deliver its verdict in a murder case in which the key accused is Kushwaha Shashi Bhushan Mehta, the BJP’s candidate from Panki.
Mehta is the key accused in the May 11, 2012 murder of Suchitra Mishra, a teacher of his Oxford Public School in Ranchi. Ranchi civil court judicial commissioner Vijay Srivastava concluded the hearing in the case on Tuesday and fixed December 20 as the date of the judgment.
Mishra, a widow, had joined as a Hindi teacher at Mehta’s school in the year 2008. Her post-mortem report had found that she was pregnant. Police arrested Mehta, a Palamau-based politician and self-proclaimed educationist; he was later released on bail.
Mehta unsuccessfully contested from Panki Assembly seat three times — 2004, 2009 and 2014 — under the banner of Jharkhand Sangharsh Morcha. In 2016, contested the Panki Assembly bypoll on a JMM ticket and lost to the Congress’s Devendra Singh. In October this year, Mehta joined the BJP and the party gave him the Panki ticket.
He has been charged under sections of the IPC including 302 (murder), the minimum punishment for which is life imprisonment. According to Section 8 of Representation of the People Act, 1951, if Mehta is convicted and he also wins from Panki, he will disqualified from taking oath as an MLA and contesting any poll.
“Let us wait for the judgment. This is a multidimensional, tricky situation. Panki is one of the seats where are confident about victory,” said a senior BJP leader who requested anonymity.
Mishra’s sons Abhishek and Ashutosh along with their maternal uncle and aunt are fighting for justice. “We were too small when our father died in 2000,” said Abhishek. “Our mother worked hard to look after us, but Mehta killed her. We can’t forget her face. We can’t pardon Mehta who spoiled our life,” said Abhishek
Mehta could not be contacted despite repeated calls.
Five other accused in the case are Rajnath Singh, Pradeep Kumar Paswan, Dharmendra Thakur, Anup Singh and Satya Prakash.
