New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) A city court Thursday issued warrants against former Uttar Pradesh lawmaker Udai Bhan Singh and eight others for their alleged involvement in the murder of an eyewitness in a triple murder case. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Sanjeev Jain issued the warrants for production of the accused before him Aug 13 after the case was transferred from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi on a plea of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

CBI registered the case June 13, 2003 on the orders of the Allahabad High Court.

Investigations by CBI revealed that Udai Bhan singh, Vishal Singh, Bashir Khan, Ashok Mishra, Rajnath Mishra, Sandeep Kumar Singh, Santosh Singh, Vinod Kumar Singh and Mabud Khan entered into a criminal conspiracy during Jan-Feb 2003 to eliminate Rakesh Pandey, an eyewitness, before he could give evidence in the court against Udai Bhan Singh and his associates in the murder case of Vakeel Shukla and two others in Gopiganj in Uttar Pradesh.

Udai Bhan Singh is presently undergoing life imprisonment in the Vakeel Shukla murder case.

Ashok Mishra and Rajnath Mishra tried to induce Rakesh Pandey with an offer of Rs.500,000 from Udai Bhan Singh for not giving evidence in the court.

They allegedly threatened him that he would be killed if he gave evidence.

Rakesh Pandey was allegedly shot dead by Santosh Singh and his associate Feb 17, 2003.

Udai Bhan Singh was elected to the Uttar Pradesh state assembly during 2002 on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket. Later, he defected to the Samajwadi Party.

Following his conviction in the Vakeel Shukla murder case, he lost membership of the legislative assembly on the direction of the Election Commission of India.