Prime accused in Niyogi case gets death sentence

Second Additional Sessions Judge T K Jha on Monday sentenced to death Paltan Mallah for murdering renowned Chhattisgarh labour leader Shankar Guha Niyogi.

The court also sentenced five other accused, including two industrialists Mool Chand Shah and Chandrakant Shah, to life imprisonment and acquitted three others in the case.

Amid tight security, Jha delivered his 149-page judgment in a jam-packed court room.

The court imposed a fine of Rs 1 million each on the Shahs and directed that they undergo an additional imprisonment of five years each in the event of failure to pay the fine.

The court awarded life imprisonment to three other accused -- Gyan Prakash Mishra, Abhay Singh and Addhesh Aavdesh Rai-- and also directed them to pay a fine of Rs 2000 each or undergo an additional imprisonment of two years. However,the court acquitted three accused--Avin Shah, Chandra Baksh Singh and Baldev Singh.

Niyogi, who was then leading an agitation of industrial workers as the convenor of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM), was shot dead at his residence at Bhilai on September 28, 1991.

After the morcha launched an agitation and pressure mounted from various labour organisations all over the country, the then Bharatiya Janata Party government handed over the Niyogi murder case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which started investigation in November 1991.

The main accused, Paltan Mallah was arrested on August 21, 1993, from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. Some other accused, who were absconding for a long time, were also arrested by the CBI.

A 65-member team of the CBI carried out the investigation and recorded statements of 306 witnesses. The court examined 192 witnesses of which 15 were declared hostile. Interpol officials and two witnesses from Nepal also appeared in the court to give evidence.

Senior CBI counsel J R Trivedi appeared on behalf of the CBI while senior counsel Rajendra Singh, Upendra Nath Awasthi, R N Tiwari, Ashok Yadav, Ashok Trivedi, Madan Gopal and Bhanwarlal Jain were the defence counsels.