The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an application filed by Bhagwati Singh alias Pappu, challenging his conviction in the 34-year-old murder case of eight-time National Badminton Champion Syed Modi.
The Bench headed by Justice Aniruddha Bose upheld the Allahabad High Court order, which had sentenced the accused shooter to life imprisonment in June last year.
On June 29, 2022, the Allahabad High Court had upheld the life imprisonment awarded to Bhagwati Singh, after observing that there was ample evidence on record to show that Modi was killed in firing by appellant, along with another accused by using a firearm.
The Lucknow Vacation Bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Saroj Yadav had passed the verdict on the petition challenging the order passed by the Additional Sessions Judge of Lucknow on August 22, 2009.
The accused is currently in jail.
On July 28, 1988, Syed Modi was shot dead by two car-borne miscreants, while he was returning from KD Singh Stadium in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
CBI had taken over the investigation in the case and filed a charge sheet against the then Congress MP Sanjay Sinh, Amita Kulkarni Modi, Akhilesh Singh, Balai Singh, Amar Bahadur Singh, Jitendra Singh alias Tinku and Bhagwati Singh.
All other accused except Pappu were either acquitted by the courts or passed away during the trial. He had contended that once the main accused were discharged, there remained no motive against him to kill the Badminton Champion and hence, he should be acquitted.
The Bench then noted that a direct eye witness had identified Pappu and said that the motive lost its importance because nobody could peep into the mind of a miscreant to know for what purpose he had committed the offence.