Lucknow:
Wan but composed, the young wife of Zia-ul Haque, the senior cop murdered in Uttar Pradesh this weekend, says she expects Raja Bhaiya, who resigned as minister yesterday, to be arrested soon. She has based that expectation on a promise by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav that all those named in an FIR on the policeman's killing will be arrested.
Raja Bhaiya or Raghuraj Pratap Singh, who has a lengthy criminal record, is one of five people named in the FIR; he is accused of being part of a conspiracy to murder the Deputy Superintendent of Police. Before he was forced to resign yesterday, he was UP's Food and Civil Supplies minister.
The Samajwadi Party has been slammed by opposition leader, the BSP's Mayawati, who has demanded that Question Hour be suspended in Parliament today to discuss the cop's death in Samajwadi-Party-ruled UP. The Parliament has been adjourned till noon after uproar over various issues including the policeman's killing. Ms Mayawati said this morning, "He (Mulayam Singh Yadav) can't handle his government in UP, they have dreams of making the government at the Centre."
Mr Haque was shot in the head and chest on Saturday night while investigating a village headman's murder in Ballipur. The four men accused of shooting the police officer are allegedly Raja Bhaiya's associates.
His wife, Parveen Azad, who had threatened to commit suicide if the Chief Minster did not visit her, said after Mr Yadav's visit to her Eastern UP village yesterday, "The chief minister has said yes to all my demands. So I think they will arrest Raja Bhaiya soon." The policeman's family had refused to bury his body, but did so after the chief minister's assurances.
Ms Azad has alleged that her husband was killed on the orders of Raja Bhaiya because he ignored warnings to abandon an investigation into a case of communal violence against him. "Everything in Kunda happens because of Raja Bhaiya. All pressures come from him...," she said.
But the local strongman, who is from Kunda, said he has been falsely named. "If I had a problem with him (the policeman), I would have had him transferred, not killed."
Raja Bhaiya's inclusion in Mr Yadav's cabinet last year had been a controversial one, especially as the 39-year-old Chief Minister came to power primarily on a promise to rid UP of all its law and order problems. Ms Mayawati says Mr Yadav's government exemplifies "goonda raj" or hooliganism, instructed and practiced by members of the ruling party, and will attack the Samajawadi Party in Parliament today on the policeman's death.
The SP government completes its first anniversary on March 15.