Opposition Parties accused chief minister Akhilesh Yadav for trying to shield his minister by conceding to all the demands of family members of the slain scribe Jagendra Singh, except for a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and to sack the accused minister.
“Just to save his cabinet colleague from going to jail or to remove him from his ministry, Akhilesh Yadav, had invited the scribe Jagendra’s family and gave them huge compensation package just to convince them to withdraw their agitation as his government is facing embarrassment and drawing sharp criticism”, alleged Siddharth Priya Srivastava, spokesman of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee.
He also questioned Yadav on the time of making the above move while reacting on the issue on Monday evening. ``Chief Minister has sensed danger that his move to shield Ram Murti Singh Verma, would be exposed if the Court ordered a CBI probe into the matter”, asserted Srivastava adding that in wake of the above, the family members were appeased to call off their dharna within minutes of SC’s notice to the State government to submit a reply on the above issue. He further asked chief minister to reply that how he gave compensation to the family and also assured of government job even when they were unnecessary agitating against the government.
``Either Akhilesh Yadav should first removed his minister, ordered CBI probe and than announced compensation package, otherwise how the government forwarded such a big help for the family which is making false allegation against a senior minister and also brought embarrassment for the entire Government”, questioned Srivastava.
``The slain victim’s dying declaration is either true or not and the allegation made by his family on it’s basis might also go either way, so what will Akhilesh Yadav do with the compensation package if a so-called `fair-probe’ by state agencies gave clean chit to the minister as well as the police and pointed that the journalist committed suicide just to evade arrest”, questioned Srivastava adding that in that case the government had to give compensation package to family of a `person’ who was wanted by the police in a criminal case and later had also made accused a senior minister and state police of killing him. Srivastava said that it would be better if Akhilesh Yadav, would first removed the minister as prime concerned of his government should to expose the truth behind the entire `drama’.
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) also accused chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, for trying to shield his minister involved in the sensational killing of Jagendra. ``Why Akhilesh Yadav had not accepted the victim’s family demand of a probe by CBI and removal of minister Ram Murti Singh Verma from the cabinet”, pointed laxmikant Bajpai, state president of BJP.
``The manner in which Yadav accepted all the other demands which included a compensation package, jobs to the sons of slain scribe etc, but no positive response to main demand of justice for the victim clearly showed that it was a well-calculated move of the Samajwadi Government to save the minister’,alleged Bajpai. He also accused the government of forcing the victim’s family to agree on the above compromise formula and added that the chief minister had lost the morale right of continuing in the office and he should resign.