Lucknow, May 6 (IANS) A special trial court here Friday awarded the life term to Uttar Pradesh's ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Shekhar Tiwari and nine others, including three policemen, for the gruesome murder of an engineer in Auraiya town in 2008.

 
 The special court of judge Virendra Kumar also awarded two-and-a-half years imprisonment to the legislator's wife, Vibha Tiwari, for destroying evidence.
 
 Public works department (PWD) engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta was lynched on the night of Dec 24, 2008 for resisting extortion by Tiwari, who was allegedly collecting money for Chief Minister Mayawati's birthday celebrations. The incident took place in Auraiya town, about 250 km from here.
 
 The case was transferred to a special court in Lucknow following a request by the victim's family members who alleged that Tiwari was trying to use his influence on the Auraiya court.
 
 While hailing the verdict, special public prosecutor I.B. Singh said: "This was one of the most difficult cases of my life because there were all kinds of pressures and the accused left no stone unturned to get the case stalled - by whatever means."
 
 "The accused moved heaven and earth to get the case transferred from this special court headed by a very tough and upright judge, Virendra Kumar. They even opposed the extension of his term as the presiding officer of the special court and when the matter went before the senior judge of the high court, they again moved another application against that on the plea that the senior judge of the high court must not hear it as he was a member of the administrative committee which deals with transfer of judicial officers."
 
 The trial court had started hearing the case from July 2009 and completed hearing of all witnesses from both sides in record time.