Merrut, SEptember 23: Two get life term for murder of Meerut university professor Ghaziabad : A special CBI court here awarded life imprisonment to two people and a three-year jail to a third person held guilty in the 2006 murder of Meerut University professor Kavita Chaudhary.
The court awarded life term to Ravinder and Sultan for hatching a conspiracy, abducting the professor before killing her, destroying evidence, and extorting money from former state irrigation minister Merajuddin Ahmed.
The court awarded three-year jail term to Yogesh, the third person held guilty Yogesh.
On Thursday, Special CBI Judge A.K. Singh convicted Ravinder and Sultan for murder, abduction, conspiracy, extortion and causing disappearance of evidence. Yogesh was convicted for extortion and criminal conspiracy. Ashok, a fourth accused, was acquitted.
“Another accused, Ravinder Pradhan, died in the jail during trial,” said the senior public prosecutor.
Ahmed had to resign as minister after his name figured in the murder of the professor, who was abducted by five assailants Oct 23, 2006, from Garhmukteshwar.
Senior public prosecutor for CBI Ejaz Khan pleaded for capital punishment.
The CBI submitted its charge sheet on March 23, 2007, after the case was transferred to it for investigation Jan 12, 2007. During its investigation the CBI presented 33 witnesses. Of them three turned hostile including the Merajuddin, Ravinder and Amit alias Ashu.
The CBI charge sheet stated that Kavita had intimate relations with Merajuddin and made a CD showing her with him in a bedroom.
Ravinder and the other accused in the case, along with Kavita, then started blackmailing the minister to make their CD public, the charge sheet said. The five assailants then extorted Rs.35 lakh from Merajuddin. While Kavita received Rs.4 lakh from it, Ravinder Pradhan kept the major share with himself.
A dispute over sharing the money led to Kavita’s murder. The charge sheet also stated that Kavita was also in an intimate relationship with R.P Singh, the then vice chancellor of Choudhary Charan Singh University.
She also had close relations with Kiran Pal Singh and Babu Lal, both ministers in the Uttar Pradesh government from Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) quota, the charge sheet stated.