Srinagar:
In what could add to the troubles of the Omar Abdullah government, the family of Haji Syed Mohammad Yousuf has is now demanding a CBI enquiry into his death. The family claims he was tortured.
"When we got his body we saw some marks on his body which indicate that he was tortured," said his son, Syed Talib.
Yousuf, a National Conference worker, was summoned by Mr Abdullah to his home on Friday, September 30. Also present at the meeting were two other members of Mr Abdullah's party who had reportedly paid Mr Shah huge bribes for important governmental positions. Abdul Salam Reshi was one of them. He claims he had given Mr Shah 34 lakhs for a position on the Legislative Council. The other alleged bribe-giver, Yousuf Ganderbali, had reportedly paid 84 lakhs to be made a minister. After talking to the trio, Mr Abdullah handed over the men to the Crime Branch. 12 hours later, Mr Shah had died.
Amid growing tensions the Chief Minister met with the Governor in the afternoon. Sources tell NDTV he is also in touch with Law Minister Salman Khurshid.
The Chief Minister believes Mr Shah died of stress, caused possibly by knowing his transgressions had been discovered.
But Mr Reshi's testimony has been fairly battering for Omar and his father, Farooq, who is a union minister and the head of the National Conference party. Mr Reshi says he complained to the Chief Minister more than two months ago about Mr Shah. Mr Abdullah does not deny this. "I'm only human," he said, "I forgot to address the complaint of graft immediately."
Mr Reshi has also said that Mr Shah told him that the Abdullahs were aware of the deals he struck. And he claims that Mr Shah was vomiting in the police jeep that drove him away from the Chief Minister's house.
For now Omar is standing firm, making it clear that he will not resign and hitting back at Opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) alleging that his arch rivals had tutored witnesses to speak against him.
"I am telling you that from three completely independent sources and one including the media, I have been told that there has been contact between a high level PDP functionary and Salam Reshi," said Omar.
The PDP has denied these allegations and say they will continue their agitation. Party Chief Mehbooba Mufti says she finds it difficult to believe that Omar knew about the bribery charges against Yusuf but didn't do anything about it for two months.
"It's one lie after the other. If Haji was an ordinary worker, how many National Conference workers get to fly with Omar Abdullah and in a government chopper?" she said.
Both PDP and National Conference are trying to score points over each other, but it's an issue of corruption on a massive scale. So clearly, a collective effort will be needed to counter that.