The Patna High Court, in its verdict, acquitted Rakesh Ranjan Yadav alias Rocky Yadav, son of former Janata Dal-United (JDU) MLC Manorama Devi and two others accused who were earlier held guilty by a session Court of Gaya in 2017 and sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the infamous 2016 Bihar road rage incident on July 20.
The High Court, in its judgment while quashing the 2017 order of the session court, said that the “trio were being given the benefit of doubt as the prosecution failed to establish their guilt by adducing clear, cogent, trustworthy, and clinching evidence.”
In its order, the court also noted that the Forensic science laboratory (FSL) expert Dilip Kumar failed to provide any material to back up his assertion that retrieved two deformed bullets were fired from the Beretta pistol. Earlier, the prosecution claimed that the licenced pistol confiscated from Rocky and over a dozen cartridges were used in the murder.
“All the appellants are acquitted of the charges levelled against them and held to be proved against by the learned trial court. They be set at liberty forthwith if not required in any other case”, said the division bench.
The case pertains to a road rage incident in 2016 when a class 12 student Aditya Sachdeva (18), was allegedly shot dead by Rocky Yadav following an altercation over overtaking vehicles on Bodhgaya-Gaya road on May 7, 2016. The altercation between Yadav and Aditya occurred when Aditya and his friends allegedly had not provided a side to Rocky’s Range Rover.
Fumed by the act, Yadav then overtook Aditya’s car and stopped him; it was then reported that after a heated verbal exchange, Yadav then took out his licensed Beretta revolver and shot dead Sachdeva, who later succumbed to his injuries while being taken to the hospital.
The incident sparked outrage as the national media followed the case tirelessly, pressuring the then – State Government to arrest the accused. The police arrested Rocky Yadav from his father’s mixer plant three days after the incident. Later on, the others accused were also apprehended by the police. The accused were also put up on a speedy trial, though many of the witnesses, including a few policemen and friends of Aditya, had turned hostile during the hearing.
However, based on the recovery of firearms and the subsequent findings of the forensic team, the session court of Gaya had sentenced Rocky, his cousin Teny Yadav and Rajesh Singh, the then bodyguard of Rocky’s mother Manorma Devi, to life imprisonment in 2017.
Rocky’s father and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Bindeshwari Yadav were also sentenced to a five-year jail term by the court for tampering and destroying evidence. Bindi Yadav died due to Covid-19 while on bail in July 2020.
Now after the verdict of the court, while Rocky Yadav and his accomplices are all set to walk free, netizens have been seen questioning the efficiency of the criminal justice system and state police after it failed to produce concrete evidence in what can be termed as an open and shut case.
