Controversial MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, who resigned from UP Cabinet over the killing of a DSP in Pratapgarh, on Monday demanded a CBI probe into the incident, saying he had no reason to harm the officer and would have easily got him transferred if he had a problem.
"Had I been so opposed to the CO, I would have easily got him transferred instead of getting him murdered," he said, rejecting charges that he had an old score to settle with the slain DSP who was posted as a Circle Officer in Kunda.
He said he was ready to go to jail to save SP government from embarrassment, after the matter came up through separate adjournment notices in the Zero Hour in Assembly.
"I can go to jail immediately from the House if the chief minister directs me to do so, as I have no intention of causing embarrassment to the government," Raja Bhaiya said.
He demanded a CBI inquiry into the incident so that he could clear his name and the real culprits are caught.
"I have never asked the chief minister or SP chief since I had been getting everything without asking for it, but today I ask you to order CBI inquiry," he said.
"Those who had been concentrating their energies on getting me removed from the post of minister have managed to do so as I can never think of causing embarrassment to the government," he said.
Raja Bhaiya blamed a corporator of a particular political party for giving the "most unfortunate" incident a political colour by raising slogans demanding his (Raja Bhaiya's) arrest in Pratapgarh the next day of the incident.
On the FIR in which he has also been named, the Kunda MLA said there was a lacuna in it and it would not be able to ensure justice.
Speaking about two of those mentioned in the FIR, he said one was in poor health while the other was present with him when he had gone to meet the chief minister in Lucknow to inform him of the incident when it was actually taking place in Pratapgarh.
The former minister claimed that when he met the chief minister, even the top police officials including the DGP were not aware of the incident.
He said it was a shortcoming on the part of the Kunda police which allowed the body of the slain village head to be taken back to the village from the hospital.
Raja Bhaiya claimed that the slain village head's brother was killed in firing by inspector of Kunda and in the cross-firing, the Circle Officer was killed.
Some 15 to 20 rounds were fired, he said.
To opposition members' charges that officers in the district were posted on his recommendations, he said Kunda inspector has been continuing on the post since BSP rule.
Earlier replying for the government, parliamentary affairs minister Azam Khan said the incident had caused immense hurt to the government and sought opposition help in curbing the growing tendency of irresponsibility and brutality in society which he said would not remain confined to any one government.
"There are no words to condemn the incident," he said, adding, government would take exemplary steps to punish those responsible for it.
The parliamentary affairs minister said two people named in the FIR filed by the CO's wife have been arrested, while efforts were on to arrest the remaining including those named in the killing of the village head and his brother.
"How the might of the police is restored has to be seen by the home department and police itself," Khan said, adding, though action has been taken, time is required for further action as per the law.
Earlier Leader of Opposition Swami Prasad Maurya (BSP), Hukum Singh (BJP) and Pramod Tewari (Congress) through their adjournment notices condemned the killings and demanded the arrest of all those mentioned in the FIR.
Hukum Singh blamed the district officials for failing to diffuse the tension prevailing in the area which culminated in the murders.
Tewari alleged that the CO was not killed in cross firing but was brutally targeted by the killers who bashed him up before one of them, who was apparently a professional killer, fired at the DSP's chest.
Exhorting the chief minister to take strong action, Tewari also demanded government job on compassionate grounds to the police officer's widow and Rs one crore as compensation.
