Bhadohi’s Chowhata Mass Murder: Allahabad HC Overturns Lower Court’s Decision Of Lifer, Acquits Them

Prayagraj, December 2 (TNA) All accused in Bhadohi's Chowhata mass murder have been acquitted as the Allahabad High Court (HC) overturned the decision of the lower court in this matter. The court said that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against the accused beyond reasonable doubt.

This order has been given by the division bench of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice SAH Rizvi while accepting the appeals of six accused including Prem Shankar Upadhyay.

The HC thus overturned the life sentence given to all the accused in the mass murder of five people of the same family in 2009 in Chaurahata village in Unj police station area of Gyanpur and acquitted them. The incident is of September 2009. Sangamlal Gupta, his wife Savitri Devi, two daughters Anita and Rani and granddaughter Gudiya were murdered in Chaurahata village of Gyanpur.

On the complaint of village watchman Sarju, an FIR was lodged in Unj police station by the village head against unknown people. After a few days, Sangamlal's son, who came from Mumbai, accused some people of the village of murder, who were found innocent in the police investigation.

The trial court had found Prem Shankar Upadhyay, Chandra Prakash, Guddu Mishra alias Sachchidanand, Tirtharaj Gupta, Dharmendra Kumar Bind, Kedar Mishra and Shyamdev Vishwakarma guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Accused Vijay Gupta died during the hearing. After the hearing, the High Court said that the prosecution failed to provide evidence of the involvement of the accused in the murder.