Shekhar Tiwari

On 24 December 2008, five days before the annual birthday bash for party leader Mayawati, Tiwari forcibly entered the house of Public Works Department engineer Manoj K Gupta in Dibiyapur. Along with a gang that included three policemen, Tiwari mercilessly beat up Gupta, fracturing his skull and possibly giving him electric shocks.^[3] Tiwari then brought the fatally wounded Gupta to the police station, and Gupta died two hours later at the district hospital.^[4]

Media reports repeatedly insisted that the lynching^[3] had occurred because Gupta had refused to pay a large sum (possibly Rs 5 to 50 lakhs) towards Mayawati's birthday party. Tiwari and Mayawati initially denied all such claims,^[5] but the then in-charge of the Dibiyapur police station, inspector Hoshiyar Singh, gave an interview on TV stating that the group had gone primarily to extract funds. .^[6] BSP Auraiya district president Yogendra Dohre was also implicated in the murder.

Over the next year, there were reports of laxity in the investigations,^[3][7] but the opposition parties and media kept up the pressure. Eventually, the Supreme Court of India intervened owing to tardy progress in the case. ^[8] Eventually, Tiwari was sentenced to life imprisonment^[9] along with several others.

Later on High court acquitted Hoshiar Singh.