Lucknow, Dec. 26: If Kavita Chaudhary’s ultimately self-destructive charms singed a former minister yesterday, the effects of her alleged secret liaisons today scalped a sitting minister.

Uttar Pradesh food minister Chaudhary Babulal, whose cellphone details revealed that he had called the murdered lecturer 57 times, quit the Mulayam Singh Yadav cabinet on moral grounds.

Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh said the resignation has been forwarded to the chief minister.

Babulal admitted that he knew Kavita but did not speak to her “as often as is being reported” in the media and maintained that he had “nothing to do” with her disappearance.

Police have claimed the 29-year-old, who taught at Meerut’s Chaudhary Charan Singh University, was killed by her accomplices after a dispute over sharing the Rs 35 lakh that former minister Mohammad Merazuddin paid them to buy their silence. Merazuddin yesterday stepped down as a Lok Dal MLA.

There is talk in political circles here that the Lok Dal is putting pressure on all party members involved in the scam to quit. “The idea, it seems, is to set an example for Samajwadi Party minister Kiran Pal Singh so that he also resigns to ensure a fair probe,” said a senior Lok Dal leader.

Mulayam, however, ruled out a CBI probe into the scandal that has sparked outrage amid insinuations that the posh Raj Bhavan Colony, home to Merazuddin and several bureaucrats and ministers, had turned into a “sex shop”.

“The case will not be handed over to the CBI as it will not serve the purpose, but if involvement of any minister is proved in the case, then he will not be spared,” he said in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh.

Mulayam’s Samajwadi Party today hinted at snapping ties with the Lok Dal, which appeared to be politically isolated in the poll-bound state.

Senior Samajwadi leader Beni Prasad Verma said the “link” with the Lok Dal was a “compulsion” of alliance politics. “We might consider going to the state poll without our alliance partner.”

Asked about the alleged involvement of fellow party member Kiran Pal Singh, the MP and former minister said the probe has given him a clean chit.

The Congress, which was planning to tie up with Ajit Singh, is believed to have put off the plan.