Wednesday, 14 December 2022 | PNS | NAINITAL
Petitioner has sought quashing lower court judgement acquitting cabinet minister & other accused
The Uttarakhand High Court has directed the State government to explain by December 16 why it had filed an appeal in court to withdraw the case in the death of police horse Shaktiman. The single bench of Justice Ravindra Maithani issued this direction while hearing a petition seeking prosecution of the accused in the case including current cabinet minister Ganesh Joshi.
Hoshiyar Singh Bisht had filed the petition in the High Court challenging the decision of the lower court which had acquitted Joshi and other accused in the case. The lower court had stated that Bisht is neither the complainant nor a witness in the case while the appellate court had quashed his review petition. In his petition in the High Court, Bisht has stated that during the gherao of the Vidhan Sabha in 2016, the actions of Joshi wielding a lathi had allegedly resulted in injury to police horse Shaktiman’s hind leg. The injury was so severe that the leg had to be amputated. Though a prosthetic leg was fixed, the horse died a month later due to infection. In this case the police had registered a case at Nehru Colony police station in Dehradun with Joshi and four others as accused. Later, in May 2016 the charge sheet was submitted in the court. Subsequently when the State government changed, the newly elected State government filed an appeal to withdraw the case from the court of the chief judicial magistrate. In September 2021, the lower court acquitted Joshi and others while the appellate court did not find Bisht’s review petition tenable. In his petition in the High Court, the petitioner has sought that the decision of the lower court should be quashed and that Joshi and the other accused in the case should be prosecuted.
