CBI on Thursday booked controversial politician Raghuraj Pratap Singh, alias Raja Bhaiya, for his alleged involvement in the murder of Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia-Ul-Haq. Besides this case, the CBI has re-registered three other cases that are related to the murder. Following a request on Tuesday from the Uttar Pradesh Government to hand over these cases to the CBI, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) notified the order on Thursday and soon after the agency registered these four cases.
Sources said, the CBI constituted a 10-member team of officials from Special Crime Investigation unit to probe the cases. The team will leave for Pratapgarh on Friday.
The case against Raja Bhaiya, five-term Independent MlA from Kunda in Pratapgarh, was registered on a complaint from the slain officer’s wife, Parveen Azad.
Four others have been named accused in this case. They are Gulshan Yadav, Hariom Srivastava, Rohit Singh and Sanjay Singh. All the five 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.
Following Haq’s murder, the UP Police registered two cases, one on the basis of his wife’s complaint, and the other based on SHO Manoj Shukla’s report in which 10 persons were made accused.
Raja Bhaiya (44) had to resign as a Cabinet Minister in Uttar Pradesh after the Akhilesh Government faced massive criticism over law and order situation following the murder.
Two other cases which are inter-related with the killing of the DSP — murder of Balipur Sarpanch Nanhe Yadav and his brother Suresh Yadav — have also been taken up by the agency for investigation. Four persons have been accused in the murder of Nanhe and his brother which include Ajay Kumar Pal, Kamla Prasad Pal, Ajit Kumar Singh and Rajiv Kumar Singh.
The agency would also take the custody of two accused arrested by the State Police - Rajeev Singh and Sanjay Singh, alias Guddu Singh, considered to be close aides of Raja Bhaiya, the sources said.
Rajeev is an accused in the murder of Nanhe Yadav who was killed in the evening on March 2 at Balipur in Kunda. Guddu Singh is an accused in the cases related to murder of Haq and Nanhe’s brother Suresh.
After getting the information about Nanhe Yadav’s murder, Haq reached the site where he along with Suresh Yadav were allegedly attacked by a mob and killed, according to the FIR. While Haq was killed at 9 pm, Suresh died 15 minutes later, it said.
In the FIR filed on the basis of complaint of Azad, she alleged that, “On the directions of Raja 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.”
CBI sources said the agency has sought help from the Inspector General of Police Allahabad to probe the case and keep ready all the documents and evidence collected by them so far.
The agency sources said it will seek call detail records of all the accused to verify their location at the time of incident and would also question Raja Bhaiya.
Following uproar, eight policemen including the Inspector at Kunda police station in Pratapgarh district, where Haq was posted, were suspended for fleeing the spot when the DSP was being attacked.