|
New Delhi/Lucknow, Mar 4 (PTI): Controversial Uttar Pradesh minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh, better known as Raja Bhaiya, resigned on Monday from the state Cabinet after his name cropped up in the killing of a deputy superintendent of police in Pratapgarh district.
“Raja Bhaiya ka istifa ho gaya hai (Raja Bhaiya has resigned),” Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose son Akhilesh is the state’s chief minister, told reporters outside Parliament.
Raja Bhaiya met the Chief Minister in Lucknow on Monday morning and submitted his resignation, official sources said. Governor B L Joshi has accepted the resignation, they said.
The UP Assembly was adjourned for 30 minutes on Monday morning following an uproar over the killing of the officer.
The DSP, Zia-ul-Haq, was killed by a mob in Pratapgarh on Saturday when he had rushed there after a village head was shot dead over a land dispute. The slain officer's wife had accused Raja Bhaiya of organising the attack.
In a complaint to the police, the DSP's wife Pravin Azad said: “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.”
She filed the complaint on Sunday in Kunda police station, where her husband had been posted.
Asked about Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati's demand for the imposition of President's Rule in UP, Mulayam said: “It is unnecessary....It is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.”
Mayawati had earlier told reporters that there is “goonda raj” in UP and that the Centre should take action by clamping President's Rule in the state.
“When a police officer is not secure, what to speak of the common man,” she said.
Raja Bhaiya, the food and civil supplies minister, had told PTI on Sunday that “anyone who is undergoing mental trauma could be misguided. This is an unfortunate incident...The accusation is being levelled with mala fide intention. Truth will prevail in the investigation.”
Haq, posted as Circle Officer at Kunda town, had rushed to Balipur village after getting information about the murder of the village head on Saturday.
Gram Pradhan Nanhe Yadav was shot dead by unidentified men last evening in the village, about 160km from here. When the police officer reached the village on the outskirts of Kunda, he was attacked by some men, police said.
Haq and the village head's brother Suresh received serious injuries in the attack and both died later, police said.
|
