12 people sentenced to life imprisonment in astrologer Tiwari murder case

PTI, Aug 20, 2024, 6:24 PM IST

A local court here on Tuesday sentenced 12 persons to life imprisonment holding them guilty in the murder case of astrologer Ramesh Tiwari.

Additional Sessions Judge (IV) Rupali Saxena convicted the 12 accused including shooter Vipul and imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 each.

District Government counsel Satish Chandra Pandey said that Tiwari, who was the astrologer of former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, was shot dead in Unchagaon in the Sarpathan police station area on November 15, 2012.

Two miscreants in police uniform entered the astrologer Tiwari’s house and shot him dead with a carbine and pistol. Ramesh’s brother Rajesh was also injured in this incident.

Pandey said that the deceased’s brother Umesh Tiwari had lodged a case against unknown miscreants.

During the investigation of the case, the names of shooter Vipul Singh, Dhirendra Singh, Jharkhande Singh, Subedar Singh, Kaushal Kishore Singh, Vijay Bahadur Singh, Virendra Bahadur Singh, Lal Shankar Upadhyay, Amit alias Pandit, Arvind, Shailendra, Tannu Singh, Sher Bahadur Singh and Amarjit Singh, who were involved in the murder conspiracy, came to light.

He said that Jharkhande Singh died during the trial of the case. Shooter Sher Bahadur Singh also died in an encounter with the police.

Tiwari was known as a high-profile astrologer and had relations with senior politicians as well as top bureaucrats. He also has ashrams in Valsad and Surat in Gujarat.