In fact the high court was to hear the petition on April 18 and thus the FTC ruling came just a day before.The court issued the directive within hours after Darash pronounced the verdict. The court also asked Darash to file a showcause reply by May 11. The court posted the matter for hearing on May 15 and issued notices to the MP and his son in this connection.Earlier in the day, Darash acquitted Uma Shankar and Swami of the charge of murdering Bharat Singh, the brother of sitting JD(U) MLA from Maharajganj Damodar Singh, for want of enough evidence.Swami and Uma Shankar were accused of kidnapping and murdering Bharat Singh during the Assembly election on February 17, 2000. Vijay Singh, another sibling of Damodar and Bharat, had lodged an FIR with Maharajganj police station against them.Uma Shankar was on bail since then. Swami was in Siwan jail for the past seven years. In fact Uma was then the leader of Samata Party (earlier version of Janata Dal United) in the state Assembly and Damodar Singh was contesting as an Independent. Uma was also the candidate of Samata Party from Maharajganj then. It was later that he crossed over to RJD and won the MP election by defeating Prabhunath Singh of Janata Dal (United) in May 2009 Lok Sabha election.Ironically, Prabhunath joined RJD in August 2010. This angered Uma Shankar Singh and he campaigned against his own party in the 2010 Assembly election. The counsel for Vijay, Prabhakar Singh, on Tuesday brought the development at the Siwan Fast-Track Court to the notice of Justice Amanullah. He said Vijay had filed a petition before the district and sessions judge of Siwan seeking transfer of the case from the Fast-Track Court-I, as he had seen the judge (Darash) having a meal with the accused. The district court on March 16 had dismissed the transfer plea. An appeal was filed against the order in the high court, which had fixed the date for hearing the petition on April 18.

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