With the Rajasthan High Court upholding the framing of charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against eight accused in the 2022 murder of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal, his son has welcomed the move while raising questions over the “delay” in justice and demanding capital punishment for the accused.On November 5, a bench of Rajasthan Chief Justice Sanjay K Agrawal and Justice Sameer Jain had dismissed two petitions by eight accused who had challenged the application of UAPA against them by the trial court.Taking to social media, Kanhaiya Lal’s son Yash Teli said, “Due to the HC’s action, our family is somewhere still hopeful of getting justice as soon as possible. It has been four years… we have been hoping for justice.”On June 28, 2022, Mohammed Riyaz Attari and Ghouse Mohammad, posing as customers, had hacked to death Kanhaiya Lal at his shop in Udaipur over a post shared by him on social media in support of Nupur Sharma, a BJP spokesperson who was suspended for her objectionable remarks about the Prophet during a live television debate.Yash said, “It is a case where the accused kills, records a video, uploads it on social media, and accepts (his guilt), and also threatens to kill the Prime Minister. Yet the case drags on for four years (and counting) and the accused are still lodged in Ajmer’s high security jail.”“If there is no capital punishment despite such a brutal murder, then the common citizen will lose faith in the judiciary,” he said.Also Read | Rajasthan HC cites Gandhi, denies bail to 5 in Kanhaiya Lal case: ‘Terrorism a weapon of the weak’What the accused persons’ lawyers saidStory continues below this adIn the HC, the lawyers for the accused had mainly contended that the recovered videos contained nothing that could “disturb public tranquility, disrupt social peace or threaten the security of the area.”They also said there was no specific threat directed at any individual, community, caste or religion, and that the prosecution had failed to establish the grounds for invoking the UAPA.Further, they argued that there was no evidence linking them to any unlawful organisation or showing that their actions were connected to one. They contended that the trial court had framed charges under the UAPA without properly examining the evidence or establishing the essential requirements of the law.What the HC saidHowever, the HC held that the objections raised by the accused regarding the recovered videos, the absence of specific words or expressions affecting public tranquility, and their alleged lack of membership in any unlawful organisation could not, by themselves, be considered sufficient grounds for discharging them without examining the entire prosecution material.Story continues below this adThe Bench said that the allegations of conspiracy and the circumstances surrounding the incident had to be considered together and that “the absence of direct evidence of conspiracy, by itself, cannot be decisive, as such an agreement may be inferred from the cumulative effect of the circumstances.”Yash, who is the complainant in the FIR, has raised questions on the trial on multiple occasions. Earlier this year, he questioned the delay in the case, asking why it hasn’t been fast tracked yet. The case, initially registered by Udaipur police, was re-registered by the National Investigation Agency on June 29, 2022.