A Gaya court on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to Janata Dal-United MLC Manorama Devi’s son Rakesh Kumar Ranjan alias Rocky Yadav and two others for the murder of teenager Aditya Sachdeva in an incident of road rage over a year ago.
Manorama Devi’s husband Bindeshwari Prasad alias Bindi Yadav, a Rashtriya Janata Dal leader known for money and muscle power, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for sheltering their son who was on the run after the killing.
The other two awarded life imprisonment by additional district judge-1 Sachidanand Singh are Manorama Devi’s bodyguard Rajesh Kumar and Rocky Yadav’s cousin Teni Yadav.
The judge also slapped a Rs one lakh fine on Rocky Yadav, Rs 50,000 on Bindi Yadav, while a Rs 10,000 penalty was imposed on each of the other two life convicts.
The court also rejected Bindi Yadav’s prayer for bail.
All four convicts are in judicial custody.
The court had held Rocky Yadav, Teni Yadav, Rajesh Ranjan and Bindi Yadav guilty on August 31 in the murder case of 19-year-old Aditya, a class 12 student and son of a Gaya-based businessman.
While Rocky Yadav was found guilty under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (mischief causing damage) and section 27 of the Arms Act, his father Bindi Yadav was convicted under section 212 (harbouring offender) and 177 (furnishing false information) of the IPC.
Teni Yadav and police constable Rajesh Kumar too were found guilty under sections applied to Rocky Yadav.
Rocky had fatally shot at Aditya, when the teenager was returning in a car to Gaya from Bodh Gaya with his friends. Rocky had got angry after the youngster’s vehicle overtook his SUV on May 7, 2016.
Rocky fled the spot thereafter and had taken shelter at his father’s factory in Bodh Gaya from where he was arrested 48 hours later. Both his parents were also arrested and charged under different sections of law.
The police had filed a chargesheet against the accused a month after commission of the crime.
During the trial, Aditya’s four friends, who were with him in the car during the incident, turned hostile but the prosecution pressed on the charge on the basis of scientific investigation against Rocky and others.
The JD-U MLC’s son was later granted bail by Patna high court on October 19 last. But the state government challenged the order in the Supreme Court, which cancelled his bail on October 27.
