Kunda, Uttar Pradesh:
Confronted with public outrage over the murder of a senior police officer, allegedly on the orders of one of his party's senior leaders, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav promised this morning that "Anyone involved in the conspiracy will not be spared."
Mr Yadav's assurance did not stop angry jeers as he arrived in Kunda, the epicentre of the controversy and the constituency of Raja Bhaiya, who resigned as a minister this week after being accused of conspiring to have senior police officer Zia-Ul-Haq assassinated.
The Uttar Pradesh government has not been able to explain why Raja Bhaiya, whose real name is Raghuraj Pratap Singh, has not been interrogated or arrested so far. The police has said that before the conspiracy charges are explored, the killers need to be identified and questioned.
On Saturday, three men were killed. First, a village pradhan or headman named Nanhe Yadav was shot with his brother, allegedly over a land dispute. Deputy Superintendent of Police Haq arrived to investigate the killings, and was then shot, allegedly by four associates of Raja Bhaiya; two of them have been arrested so far.
The Chief Minister visited the policeman's widow earlier this week and agreed to her demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into her husband's killing. The murdered pradhan's wife had threatened to commit suicide unless Mr Yadav visited her family to hear their complaints. That prompted his second visit to Kunda this morning.
Mr Haq's wife, Praveen Azad, has alleged that the investigation into her husband's death is being engineered to protect Raja Bhaiya. The post-mortem report shows he was shot once, according to the police, and the bullet has not been traced. His wife says she had found three bullet wounds on Mr Haq's body.