( From top) The body of Krishnanand Rai, sacked minister Jamuna Nishad, policemen salute at Rai’s funeral on Sunday. Pictures by Naeem Ansari

Lucknow, June 8: Mayavati today sacked one of her ministers after he raided a police station last night with an army of supporters and a constable was shot dead in the rampage.

Eyewitnesses said Jamuna Nishad, the junior fisheries minister, arrived in his beacon-fitted car at the Maharajganj Kotwali police station around 10.30pm. His supporters had gathered there by then.

The inspector-general of police, Gorakhpur zone, G.P. Sharma, said Nishad, the BSP MLA from Pipraich, Gorakhpur, and his men wanted the police to start a rape case against a leader from Maharajganj who is opposed to the party.

 

The minister began abusing the policemen when they refused to register the rape case, Sharma said. The cops argued that the medical report did not corroborate the victim’s allegation. At this, Nishad alleged that the police were trying to shield the accused.

Sitting in his car, the minister kept abusing the cops as his supporters descended on the police station. When the policemen tried to disperse them, they were assaulted.

Nishad then came out of the car and led his supporters to the police station’s storeroom. The cops again resisted. This time, someone in the crowd of supporters opened fire, injuring constable Krishnanand Rai.

“The constable died of firing by the crowd in which the minister was present. The police did not open fire. The police were merely trying to keep the agitators at bay, and while doing so resorted to a lathi-charge,” Sharma said.

Eyewitness accounts were not clear about whether Nishad himself had fired. PTI quoted some policemen as claiming that the shots were fired from the beacon-fitted car. When Nishad and his men saw Rai lying in a pool of blood, they fled.

Rai, 36, died in hospital this morning.

An FIR has been registered against Nishad and more than 50 of his supporters. The police have charged the 48-year-old MLA with murder, unlawful assembly, violating the arms act, rioting and preventing government servants from discharging their duty.

“We could never imagine that ruling party supporters would fire on their own government’s police,” said an officer at the police station, about 210km from Lucknow.

The one-hour raid by Nishad is said to have embarrassed chief minister Mayavati. She announced a package of Rs 34 lakh for the family of Rai.

Nishad first denied involvement in the raid. “I was never near the kotwali last night. I had called up some officials and asked them to probe the rape case impartially,” he said. But TV footage gave him away.

Mayavati summoned him this morning and in a stern message told the minister to put in his papers after Nishad submitted a two-page report on the incident to her.

As soon as Nishad stepped down, his official vehicle was seized. He left the chief minister’s residence in his own car.

IG Sharma said the police had collected evidence like spent cartridges, TV footage, injury marks on policemen and the telltale marks of the ransacking. A magisterial probe has been ordered.

Nishad already faces half-a-dozen cases of abduction, extortion, intimidation and attempt to murder.

He is the second minister to be sacked this month after being found on the wrong side of the law. On June 3, Assam education minister Ripun Bora was sacked for allegedly offering a CBI officer Rs 10 lakh to hush up a murder case.