With opposition grabbing the controversy over director general of police Rizwan Ahmed’s statement over killing of Hindu Vahini leader Ram Babu Gupta in Ambedkarnagar, local officers who on Monday went against top cop’s version, are now busy justifying that claims of their boss on the above issue is right.
``Saif aka Abu Baqar, had terror links but they were still working to identify the militant group to which he belongs", disclosed IG (law and Order) Amrendra Sengar, while justifying that what DGP has said on the issue is true. Talking to media persons here on Tuesday evening, Sengar, who on Monday had said that they had no record that Saif was a terrorist, claimed that sleuths of the Anti-terrorists squad (ATS) had grilled Saif and were trying to confirm that to which militant group he belongs. Sengar, however, said that sleuths of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had not passed any information about terror links of Saif to them.
``DCP crime of Thane District in Maharastra had so far confirmed that they were looking for Saif as he was wanted by them in making attack on life of advocate Manoj Raicha, who is an active member of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Gowansh Suraksha Samiti", disclosed Sengar, adding that attack on Raich was made during Ramzan in order to fuel communal tension in Thane and adjoining districts. He said that the Thane police hence also booked Saif under Section 16(1)B, 18 Unlawful Activities Act for involving in terror activities to spread communal violence. To support their claims, Sengar also said that another co-accused in the above case, Abdul Sakib, was involved in many terror cases and even booked several times under TADA and POTA and also went under 10-years imprisonment under TADA in 1992.
Meanwhile, Opposition Party leaders reacted strongly to some pictures that appeared in the media showing above accused Saif on the dais along with Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav at a function in Ambedkarnagar. BJP state spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said the DGP might be speaking the truth about Saif's connection with terrorists. But the government was trying to cover up the issue. ''The Samajwadi Party government has already moved the courtfor releasing several dreaded terrorists. The recent arrest of Saif and the statement of the DGP proves that the party was closely linked with the terrorist outfits,'' he alleged.
Demanding a high-level probe into the contradictory statements of the Police chief and the state government, he said that the role of SP MlA from Ambedkarnagar, Ajimul Pahalwan should be particularly looked into as the entire government was trying to shield him in the murders from the day one.
Congress, which on Monday had already blamed both the SP and the BJP forconspiring over the issue, now demanded that probe should be immediately transferred into the hands of Central Bureau of Investigation. ``The family members of Ram Babu were already demanding a CBI probe as they suspected that the state government would save their MlA allegedly involved in the sensational killing. Now under fresh claims of DGP Rizwan Ahmed that killing was executed to avenge riots in Gujrat, state government should immediately transfer the probe to CBI", demanded senior
Congress leader Siddharth Priya Srivastava. ``The probe should be also transferred to some Central agency as mishandling by local police in Muzaffarnagar case due to influence of a senior cabinet minister in Akhilesh Yadav’s government had resulted into worst ever riots in the State so before the UP police once again do the same in Ambedkarnagar, CBI should be asked to take over the probe and unfold the truth behind the killing of Hindu Vahini leader and his kin", he added.