A Faizabad court on Tuesday convicted former BSP minister Anandsen,his personal driver Vijaysen and a female associate Seema Azad for the kidnap and murder of law student Shashi in October 2007,and sentenced all three to life imprisonment. The body of Shashi,who was daugther a local BSP activist,was never found. Special Judge Matamber Singh,who delivered the judgement,also imposed a fine of Rs 24,000 on Anandsen,Rs 22,000 on Vijaysen and Rs 17,000 on Seema Azad. Anandsen and Vijaysen are in Faizabad jail,while Seema Azad,who was out on bail,was arrested and sent to jail after the judgement. Anandsen was Minister of State for Food Processing in the Mayawati government. He had to resign after he was named in the case in November 2007. The judgement comes 10 days after BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari and 10 others,including his wife Vibha Tiwari,who is president of the Dibiyapur Nagar Panchayat,and former Auraiya district BSP president Yogendra Dohrey,were convicted for the murder of PWD engineer Manoj Gupta. Twenty-four-year-old Shashi,who was a final year law student at Saket Mahavidyalaya in Ayodhya,had a relationship with Anandsen who was a regular visitor of her father Yogendra Prasad. She was killed,allegedly after she became pregnant and insisted the minister marry her. Acting on the instructions of Anandsen,Vijaysen met Shashi while she was returning home from college on October 22,2007,and took her away on the pretext of meeting the minister in his private car. Seema Azad,who was Shashi's classmate,was in the car. In an isolated place on the Gomti river's banks,Vijaysen strangled Shashi to death and threw her body in the river. During investigation,it was found that Anandsen was constantly in touch with Vijaysen on his mobile when Shashi was killed. Although the body was never found,we proved through circumstantial evidence that the victim was kidnapped and killed. We produced 32 witnesses in court, said Syeed Khan,advocate for Yogendra Prasad,who works as an accountant in a Faizabad college. Yogendra Prasad,his younger daughter Aneeta and a police constable were crucial witnesses. Yogendra Prasad told the court the minister often visited his house and had an affair with his daughter. Aneeta supported her father's version and said that relations between the minister and her elder sister deteriorated after she got pregnant and this eventually led to her murder,'' said advocate Khan. The police constable said in his evidence he had seen Vijaysen and Seema Azad in a car at Aaamghat in Sultanpur district on the night Shashi went missing. Initially,Yogendra Prasad lodged a missing complaint. Later,while going through his daughter's papers,he realised that Shashi had been having an affair with the minister. Soon,he had enough reasons to suspect that the minister,his driver and Seema Azad had something to do with his daughter's disappearance. Yogendra Prasad told the local police about his suspicion but they paid no attention. Yogendra Prasad then went to Lucknow and held a dharna at Vidhan Sabha for three days. On October 31,the police registered a case against Vijaysen and Seema Azad. During investigation,the police sniffed out Anandsen's involvement,and he resigned from the ministry in November 2007. In June 2008,he surrendered in court and was sent to jail. Shashi's kidnapping and murder was the first major crime involving a BSP leader after the formation of the Mayawati government in May 2007. Although the BSP had won the election on the slogan of restoring rule of law which,it alleged,had broken down during the previous Mulayam Singh regime,it gave ticket to several persons with a criminal background. Anandsen was one such man,and he was in jail for an attempt to kill an eyewitness in a murder case in which he and his father Mitrasen were accused. After winning the election,he got bail and Mayawati made him a minister. Barely six months later,he was found involved in the kidnapping and murder of Shashi.
