It's judgement day in three high-profile cases

New Delhi: Wednesday is likely to be a busy day for courts in three cities across India. Three high-profile cases are lined up for judgement in Delhi, Dehradun and Coimbatore.

While a special court in Dehradun is likely to pronounce its verdict in the poetess Madhumita Shukla death case, the Patiala House Court in Delhi will sentence 10 Delhi police officers convicted for their role in the Connaught Place shootout case.

Also, almost 10 years after serial blasts killed 58 people in Coimbatore, sentencing for the last batch of guilty will also begin on Wednesday. The most prominent among those awaiting their fate are prime accused Syed Ahmed Basha of the Al Umma group.

Here’s a brief history of all the three cases.

Madhumita Shukla case: A poetess, Madhumita was found murdered in her house in Lucknow in May 2003. Amar Mani Tripathi, the then minister in the Mayawati government, and his wife Madhumani were found to be the prime accused in the murder. Following pressures from the opposition parties Mayawati asked Amar Mani to step down and ordered a CBI probe in the incident. The case was transferred to the Court of District and Sessions Judge V Roy Dehradun from CBI court Lucknow on the orders of the Supreme Court earlier this year after apprehensions expressed by Madhumita's family that Tripathi may impede a free and fair trial in Uttar Pradesh. The slain poetess' sister Nidhi and her servant Desraj were the key witnesses in the case. So far almost 79 witnesses have appeared in the case.

CP shootout case: The Patiala House Court on October 16 found 10 Delhi Police officers guilty in the long-drawn Connaught Place shootout case. All officers – including the then ACP S S Rathi – were charged with murder under Section 302, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.The maximum sentence under these charges is death. On March 31, 1997, Pradeep Goyal and his associate Jagjit Singh, were gunned down in the busy Connaught Place in broad daylight when the police allegedly mistook them for gangsters. Pradeep and Jagjit were travelling from east Delhi to CP when the police team led by then ACP SS Rathi shot them down and then hurriedly called a press conference in the evening to claim that the gangsters had been killed.

Coimbatore Blasts: On February 14, 1998 when hundreds had gathered in Coimbatore during the election campaign visit of senior BJP leader L K Advani, bombs went off at 12 different places in the city, including the rally site, killing 58 people. The founder-leader of al-Umma, S A Basha, and its general secretary Mohammed Ansari are among the 70 who were convicted by special judge K Uthirapathi on August 1 after being found guilty.