Of the two other accused, both Balai Singh and Amar Bahadur Singh were shot dead in mysterious circumstances shortly after being released on bail. Both belonged to Rae Bareli, the hometown of Akhilesh Singh.

Yet another accused Jitendra Singh got the 'benefit of doubt' to be set free. He was accused of driving the vehicle from which the shooters - Bhagwati and Amar Bahadur - had fired the shots, while Modi was coming out of the local badminton stadium on the fateful night 21 years ago.

'The affluent and the influential literally got away with murder and poor Bhagwati Singh has been nailed,' lamented the convict's relative accompanying him Saturday when Lucknow Additional District and Sessions judge Sheshank Shekhar ordered Bhagwati to be sentenced to a life term together with a fine of Rs.50,000.

The judge turned down CBI's argument for a death sentence to Bhagwati, who pleaded for a 'milder' treatment on the plea that he was the sole bread-winner of the family and had two young daughters to marry off.

Even the court failed to establish Bhagwati's motive behind the murder. Sure enough, he proposes to move the High Court against the trial court's verdict and is quite hopeful of 'getting justice'.

But how many decades would the new court battle take to answer the question, which would unravel 'who' was behind the Indian badminton star's murder, could be anybody's guess.