Samajwadi Party MLA Acquitted In Over 40 Years Old Manhandling Case

A special court in Lucknow on Friday acquitted Samajwadi Party MLA Ravidas Mehrotra and two others of the charge of manhandling some staff members of the University of Lucknow more than four decades ago.

Additional chief judicial magistrate Ambrish Srivastava of the special court for cases against MPs and MLAs, in his judgment, said the prosecution could not prove its case.

The prosecution produced only one witness, while the remaining witnesses did not appear before the court despite its best efforts, according to the judgement.

The complainant of the case has died.

For the lack of evidence on record, the court acquitted Mr Mehrotra, a former minister, and the other two accused in the case.

According to the prosecution, the case was registered at Hasanganj police station on February 8, 1979, based on a complaint by the assistant register of the University of Lucknow that Mr Mehrotra and about 40 other persons had allegedly barged into the registrar's office and manhandled the staff members two days before.

It was also alleged that important documents in the registrar's office were torn by the accused.

After the investigation, the police submitted a charge sheet on November 18, 1979, against Ravidas Mehotra, Brijendra Agnihotri, and Anil Kumar Singh.

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