Former Uttar Pradesh Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya was on Wednesday questioned by CBI in connection with the murder of a village head and Kunda DSP Zia-Ul Haq.
CBI sources said 44-year-old Raja Bhaiya appeared at the makeshift agency office at Kunda in Pratapgarh on Wednesday morning at 11 am and his questioning lasted over six hours.
Agency sources said the sleuths questioned him over his relationship with other accused persons in the case and his presence in and around Kunda before and after the crime. The agency has gathered the call detail records of all the accused persons to understand the location of each accused at the time of incident.
last month, CBI had arrested one Bhulle Pal, a security guard with the then State Minister Bhaiya, who allegedly led a mob, enraged by the killing of Balipur village head Nanhe Yadav, to kill the police officer. Bhaiya has denied any association with Pal.
CBI has also taken into custody Rajeev Singh and Guddu Singh who are considered close to the Minister and the former Minister was also grilled over his association with these accused persons.
In the FIR filed on the basis of a complaint by the slain DSP’s wife Parveen Azad, it has been alleged that “on the directions of Bhaiya, Nagar Panchayat Chairman Gulshan Yadav, Minister’s representative Hari Om Srivastava, his driver Rohit Singh and supporter Guddu Singh first assaulted my husband with sticks and rods and later shot him dead.”
All the five persons including Bhaiya have been booked for murder, criminal conspiracy, rioting, intentional insult to provoke violence among others besides other sections of the Indian Penal Code and Criminal law Amendment Act.
Haq was murdered while on duty on March 2 and following allegations of Bhaiya’s involvement in the crime, the Cabinet Minister in Uttar Pradesh Government had to resign.
Bhaiya has criminal antecedent and has been jailed earlier for various offences. Following uproar over the DSP’s killing, eight policemen including the Inspector at Kunda police station in Pratpgarh district, where Haq was posted, were also suspended for fleeing the spot when the DSP was being attacked.