All six accused in Prof Sabharwal murder case acquitted

Nearly three years after he was allegedly beaten to death, six Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists accused of the murder of Prof HS Sabharwal in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, were today acquitted by a Nagpur court due to lack of evidence.

The accused — Vimal Tomar, Pankaj Mishra, Vimal Rajoria, Shashi Ranjan Akela, Hemant Dubey and Sudhir Yadav — all activists of the Sangh Parivar affliated-ABVP, had been charged with murder and rioting by unlawful assembly.

Additional district and sessions judge Nitin Dalvi, who tried the case after the Supreme Court ordered a transfer of the trial from the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, observed that the prosecution had "miserably failed" to prove the case against the accused.

Sabharwal's son Himanshu, who successfully petitioned the Supreme Court for transfer of the case, claimed that the sessions judge had noted in his judgment that the
accused might be guilty; he could not not convict them because of lack of evidence. His family would challenge today's judgment in a higher court, Himanshu said.

Sabharwal, head of the political science department of Madhav College, Ujjain, died in August 2006 after a fracas in the college over student union elections after he was allegedly beaten up by the ABVP activists.

On the day of the incident, television channels had showed the scuffle, and images of  Sabharwal being made to sit on a chair, apparently gasping for breath.

The incident caused a major political furore, with the Congress and other parties in Madhya Pradesh accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of protecting the ABVP cadre.

Public prosecutor Praful Shandilya said that there was "too much of insufficient evidence" when the case was transfered from Ujjain to Nagpur. He said he had made an application for further investigations in the case, as relevant material which could
lead to a conviction had not been collected by the investigating agency.

"The investigating agency is under the state and there were allegations against the political party ruling the state. So it [state government] got it executed in the manner it wanted," Shandilya said.

ABVP lawyer Pushpendra Kaurav said the prosecution had failed to establish that the accused were at the site of the incident. In all, 69 witnesses were examined in the case, including 51 by the Nagpur court.