With chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s brother, Shivpal Yadav, who is number two in the state cabinet, coming to the rescue of his colleagues claiming that no one would be removed until proven guilty during the probe, the demand of removal of state minister for backward class welfare, Ram Murti Singh Verma, further gained momentum on Monday. Almost the entire Opposition Parties demanded his removal and to transfer the probe into the hands of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Different social organizations had also come out in the support of the victim’s family and had organized protest across the state. The Congress Party took out a march to pressurise the government for quick action.
“The manner in which the state government is handling the probe and trying to save the minister and cops in the scribe’s murder clearly pointed that one would not expect a fair probe by state agencies”, claimed chairman of Uttar Pradesh Congress media committee, Satyadeo Tripathi. Reacting sharply to Shivpal Yadav’s statement, Tripathi, who was also a former home minister in Uttar Pradesh, claimed that whether the allegations on the minister and the cops are true or fabricated, but the natural justice suggests that the government should go for a probe by some independent agency, hence the matter should be immediately transferred into the hands of CBI.
Tripathi also said that the minister should also resign while the cops accused in the FIR should be placed under suspension otherwise, the accused would take advantage of their positions to influence the probe and would also destroy the vital evidences. Demanding a CBI probe into killing of Journalist Jagendra Singh in Shahjahanpur, BJP MP Yogi Adityanath has said in Balia that justice could not be meted to his family if the matter is probed by the state. “I demand a CBI probe into the matter as justice could not be meted to family members of the victim’s family if matter is probed by state agencies,” Adityanath told reporters on sidelines of a function on Sunday night.
Attacking SP government on law and order issue, Adityanath said that while state minister Ram Murti Verma killed a journalist, another minister Kailash Chaurasia had beaten a transport official. “When those in government are involved in such hooliganism, the law and order can never be maintained,” he added. BJP Spokesman, Vijay Bhadhur Pathak, while reacting to Shivpal’s statement questioned the PWD minister to tell how much time he wanted to get the matter probed. “Fifteen-days had already passed of the sensational crime but the minister was not even questioned once which showed in which direction the state government’s probe was moving”, alleged Pathak while advocating a probe by CBI.