It was kept in the office of the district magistrate of Mirzapur, where it should not have been sent at the first instance. Dr Tripathi, a well-known surgeon, was shot dead in his clinic on May 25, 1980, in Mirzapur.

The Mirzapur police had immediately lodged an FIR against Vijay Mishra, the current SP legislator from Bhadohi, his brother Ram Chandra Mishra, Jeet Narayan, Haider and others. A chargesheet was filed in 1983. 

In 1984, some of the accused moved the Allahabad High Court, requesting quashing of the case. The file was sent to the HC in February 1984. 

In September 2008, Dr Tripathi’s father Indra Dhar Tripathi moved the HC for expediting the trail. The court directed the concerned judge to conduct a speedy hearing. “It is an old case and it is very unfortunate that the trial has not been completed,” the HC observed. “It is directed that the proceedings shall be commenced on day-to-day basis without granting unnecessary adjournment to either of the parties, in case the proceedings are not stayed by any other court.”

At this stage, the case file was found to be missing.

According to the records available with the government advocate at the High Court, the file was sent to the Mirzapur DM on February 1, 1991.

The DM’s office, in reply to a November 2008 letter from special judge of Mirzapur sessions court B D Verma, informed that there was no such file available.

Subsequently, Verma, who was conducting the trial, wrote to the government advocate, demanding the case file. He also informed the advocate that Additional District Magistrate Ved Prakash Mishra, on behalf of the DM, had communicated that they had not received the file.

In the absence of the file, the trial is stuck.

S P Singh, the counsel of Indra Dhar Tripathi, said he will file a contempt petition against the concerned judge, who has yet not initiated the proceedings despite the HC directives.