Special PP in Sabharwal case likely to be named tomorrow

Nagpur, Apr 24 (UNI) The special public prosecutor in the high profile Prof H S Sabharwal murder case is likely to be named here tomorrow.

Principal District and Sessions Judge T V Nalavade will finalise one name from the two names each to be proposed by Sabharwal's son Himanshu and the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

The Government of MP has already proposed the names of District Government Pleader P K Sathianathan and Assistant Public Prosecutor Vasant Narsapurkar, while Mr Himanshu will propose the names tomorrow.

The case is being heard by a sessions court here after it was transferred from Ujjain to Nagpur on the directives of the Supreme Court.

When the hearing resumed before District Judge II B A Shaikh on April 17, Mr Himanshu had sought a week's time to propose the names for special public prosecutor, and was granted time till April 25 to do so.

At the time, Mr Shaikh had allowed all the six accused in the case to return to Ujjain and posted the hearing to April 29.

The six accused--Hemant Dube, Pankaj Mishra, Vishal Rajore, Sudhir Yadav, Shashiranjan Akela and Vinod Tomar--are all facing charges in two other related cases being heard in a court in Ujjain.

Besides, Dube, Mishra, Rajore and Yadav are appearing for post-graduate examinations in various subjects there.

Prof Sabharwal died after being allegedly assaulted by activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in the premises of Madhav College in Ujjain on August 26, 2006. The assault took place after the college authorities cancelled the elections to the students union on the ground of insufficient quorum.

The case was being heard by a court in Ujjain, but Mr Himanshu moved the apex court with a plea to shift the case to a court outside MP, saying a fair trial was not possible in that state because it was ruled by the BJP. The apex court had then ordered the case to be shifted to Nagpur.

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