The two were charged with murdering Devender Singh who was shot dead on November 30, 1997 near Bajrang Dharam in Mundka village in Outer Delhi.

The trial had been going on for a year at the court of Additional Sessions Judge Raghubir Singh. Two prime witnesses of the prosecution had turned hostile during the evidence stage.

While the two witnesses, Kuldeep Singh and Amar Singh, did not support the prosecution theory, the third eyewitness, Ved Singh, was killed last year, before the State Assembly elections. Ved Singh was the Samata Party candidate for the Nagloi Jat constituency.

According to the police, Devender was killed by Neeraj and Pawan Kumar. During the scuffle, eyewitness Kuldeep also got injured. The police said that the accused persons had hit him with the butt of the murder weapon, which remained undiscovered till the trial began.

Thecomplaint was in fact registered at the behest of Kuldeep. Amar and Ved Singh were also listed as eyewitnesses.

Police cited rivalry as the reason behind the killing. It was said that the two brothers had attended a marriage on November 24 where they entered into an argument with Devender Singh which led to a scuffle.

A chargesheet was field in the court concerned and on May 5, 1998, the Session Court ordered framing of charges against the two. In the meantime, Neeraj Kumar procured interim bail from the High Court. However, on both the occasions Neeraj flouted the court orders and once, the Nangloi police station filed a case against him.

A list of 39 witness was prepared and submitted to the court. However, the prosecution was able to verify just 17 of them. The rest were either dropped or did not turn up for deposing.

On July 14, this year, Kuldeep Singh and Amar Singh gave their statements to the court. While they agreed that the incident had occurred, they did not identify the accused. Kuldeeptold the court that on the day of the killing he was present at his office at Rani Khera road in Mundka village. Devender, and the other two witness, Amar Singh and Ved Singh, were also present. At about 9.30 pm all of them left Kuldeep's office.

While they were on their way, they saw a white Maruti car. Kuldeep told the court that two men sitting in the car arbitrarily started shooting at Devender. When Kuldeep came to Devender's rescue, he was also injured in the firing.