A city court on Friday framed charges against all 10 accused in PWD engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta’s murder case. The engineer was murdered at his Gail Vihar Colony’s home in Auraiya in December 2008. The court has fixed July 9 as the next date for hearing.

The 10 accused produced before the court on Friday were prime accused and BSP legislator Shekhar Tiwari, his wife Vibha Tiwari, Vinay Tiwari, Yogendra Dhore, Putti, Manoj Awasthi, Santosh Tiwari, Devendra Rajput, Pal Singh and Gajraj Singh. Vibha Tiwari is the president of Dibiyapur Nagar Panchyat and Yogendra Dohre is former president of Auraiya district BSP.

Former station officer of the Dibiyapur police station, Hoshiyar Singh, is still absconding. He has been dismissed from the job. “The absence of Hoshiyar Singh will not affect the trial,” said I B Singh, special counsel of the government.

“The court has allowed us to move the High Court against the framing of charges before July 9,” said defence lawyer Anil Pratap Singh.