Lucknow, May 11 (IANS) The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Monday transferred engineer Manoj Gupta’s murder case from the Auraiya trial court to Lucknow on the pleas of the alleged killer’s wife, as well as the government’s counsel.
A single judge bench of Justice Saroj Bala also directed the Lucknow sessions judge to ensure that the trial is concluded within six months.

Gupta, an executive engineer with the Public Works Department (PWD), was allegedly brutally killed by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Shekhar Tiwari December 24, 2008 in a government guest house in Auraiya. Gupta had reportedly refused to shell out a huge donation demanded by the legislator for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s birthday celebrations January 15.

Interestingly, the request for transferring the case was made by the legislator’s wife Vibha Tiwari, who is a co-accused in the case as she is believed to have erased vital evidence related to the murder. However, while she had sought the shifting of the case from Auraiya to Kanpur, the high court decided to transfer it to Lucknow following a supplementary request made by the state’s special counsel, I.B.Singh.