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The Central Bureau of Investigation yesterday named former Uttar Pradesh minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya as an accused in the murder of deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Zia ul-Haq, based on the complaint of his widow Parveen Azad. |
The federal police had earlier filed four FIRs (first information report) in the case, officials said.
This is in addition to the charges of criminal conspiracy, which the state police had slapped on Raja Bhaiyya last Sunday after Parveen alleged that the former minister, an independent legislator from Kunda, had conspired to kill her husband.
Officials said with the charges converted to murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, the arrest of Raja Bhaiyya was now imminent and the CBI team investigating the matter could interrogate him and then arrest him.
The CBI on Wednesday night took over the sensational case and yesterday began the probe into the killing of Haq and the Bilaspur village headman Nanhe Yadav and his brother Suresh Yadav.
Four others - Rohit Singh, Guddu Singh, Om Srivastava and Gulshan Yadav - have also been accused in the Haq murder case. Following his name figuring in the FIR filed by Parveen, Raja Bhaiyya quit the one-year-old Akhilesh Yadav ministry.
While the chief minister has so far parried questions on the likelihood of the arrest of Raja Bhaiyya, he said the law will be allowed to take its own course and that since the CBI had been handed over the case, it was for the agency to act further.
Parveen yesterday demanded that Raja Bhaiyya be arrested for his role in the killing of her husband. She also said a bravery award should be given posthumously to her husband and that the place where he was killed in the line of duty should be named after him.
Parveen says her husband was killed on the orders of Raja Bhaiya, whose real name is Raghuraj Pratap Singh.
The chief minister on Wednesday said that “whichever minister has been involved in wrongdoing, we will definitely order an inquiry.”
Haq was killed when he arrived in Pratapgarh to investigate the shooting of the village headman and his brother. An angry mob confronted the police man.
A postmortem report said there were serious injuries on his head and that several ribs were fractured. The injuries prove he was dragged for several metres on the ground and he was shot in the chest.
His revolver and the bullet that killed him are missing.
Meanwhile, with an eye on keeping the murder of the police officer alive, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati pulled a surprise in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, yesterday.
