Charges framed against Anand Sen, two others

LUCKNOW:A Faizabad court on Friday framed charges against former minister and BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) MLA Anand Sen, his driver Vijay Sen and their associate SeemaAzad for murder, criminal conspiracy and distorting of evidence in connectionwith the Shashi murder case. The court has fixed February 6 as the next date ofhearing.A law student from Faizabad, Shashi went missing inmysterious circumstances on October 22, 2007. Her father lodged a complaint withthe local police, raising suspicion that his daughter had been kidnapped andmurdered. On the basis of the complaint, police questioned Vijay Sen - arelative and driver of Anand Sen - the then minister for food processing.However, he was let off shortly thereafter.It was only after muchpersuasion by Shashi's parents that a case was formally lodged by the Faizabadpolice in connection with kidnapping of Shashi on October 31, 2007. In the FIR,Anand Sen's driver Vijay Sen was named as accused on the basis of suspicion. OnNovember 6, police arrested Vijay Sen and on the basis of his interrogationrecovered the body of Shashi from Gomti river in Sultanpur district on November9, 2007.Subsequently, on June 8, 2008 police arrested Seema Azad andthen Anand Sen too landed behind the bars on June 14 after Vijay Sen, in hisnarco-analysis, stated that the kidnapping and murder was executed at theinstance of the then minister.