The court has fixed July 9 as the next date of hearing as after the framing of charges, the case has reached the stage of trial.

The 10 accused produced before the court today were —- prime accused 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. Pal Singh and Gajraj Singh were the gunners of Shekhar.

Former station officer of the Dibiyapur police station, Hoshiyar Singh, is still absconding. Hoshiyar Singh and the gunners have 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.

On May 12, the Allahabad High Court had transferred the murder trial from the Auraiya district court to a Lucknow sessions court and ordered the trial to be completed in six months.

The order was issued on a petition filed by Vibha Tiwari.

It is alleged that the engineer was killed because he failed to cough up money demanded by the BSP legislator for CM Mayawati’s birthday.

On December 24 last year, miscreants had forcibly entered the house of Manoj Kumar Gupta at Gail Vihar Colony in Auraiya.

They beat him up and left him at the Dibiyapur police station in Auraiya before escaping.

During investigation, police arrested 10 people, including Shekhar Tiwari and Vibha Tiiwari, who was accused of destroying evidence by getting the bloodstains cleaned and the floor mopped in Gupta’s house.