UP: Lawyer of Nirbhaya, Hathras victim to take up Kanpur trader's death case

KANPUR: A panel of five advocates, including Seema Samridhi Kushwaha, who fought Nirbhaya’s case and is at present fighting the case of 19-year-old Hathras rape victim, will now fight the case of city businessman Manish Gupta who died following alleged torture by the police during a raid at a hotel in Gorakhpur on September 27.
On Thursday, Kushwaha along with two junior advocates reached Manish’s Barra residence and sought details about the incident point-wise from his kin, including his widow Meenakshi and other family members.
While briefing the reporters, Kushwaha said that as soon as the charge sheet is filed, she will submit a ‘vakalatnama’ in the court.
Meenakshi told TOI that to get justice for her husband, a panel of five advocates including Kushwaha will fight her case.
Meenakshi said that she is apprehensive that the accused policemen will use all their might to influence the case in their favour. “I have full faith in the panel. If I had fought the case alone, perhaps an attempt would have been made to influence the case. Now, the guilty policemen would not be able to succeed in their nefarious plans and won’t be able to influence the panel,” she added.
Advocate Kushwaha reached Manish’s house with her two junior colleagues at around 7:45pm on Thursday. She talked to Meenakshi and went through the entire incident from the beginning till date in about 17 pages, she took each and every minute detail of the whole incident. During this, she was also apprised by Meenakshi about her husband’s last call from the hotel to his nephew Durgesh on the night the incident occurred.
At the same time, the advocate also took footage of the CCTV cameras of the hotel, a copy of the post-mortem report, the details of hospitals where Manish was taken and of the hospital from where the death certificate of Manish was issued.
Kushwaha also inquired Meenakshi about what time did they come to know about the incident. Besides, whom did she contact after getting the information. She gathered detail with regard to items of Manish that have not yet been found like his bracelet, ring, chain and cash, etc.
At the same time, she inquired about the statements of the eyewitnesses of the incident, their presence and the story.
Kushwaha told the reporters that they were trying to ascertain whether the chief minister has made only an oral recommendation for the CBI probe or has also sent a sanction letter to the concerned ministry.
She said, “Advocate KK Shukla has filed a PIL for CBI investigation in the Supreme Court and he is our associate lawyer. Once the police file the charge sheet, I will sign the ‘vakalatnama’ and file it in court.”
She further said that after the listing of the case, the date of hearing will be given.
She also said that she had tweeted chief minister Yogi Adityanath from her Twitter handle on October 18.
“I request you to order a CBI inquiry into Manish’s murder case. The department by whose officers Manish was murdered; Investigation by the same department is against natural justice,” she stated in her tweet.