Policemen who fled when senior UP police officer was being attacked will be sacked: sources

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has reportedly decided to sack the policemen who allegedly abandoned senior police officer Zia-ul-Haq while he was being brutally attacked on Saturday night at a village in Kunda. The Deputy Superintendent of Police was accompanied by at least six armed policemen when he arrived there to investigate a murder case. He was shot dead after being assaulted.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had professed yesterday that "anyone involved in the conspiracy will not be spared." He also announced a CBI enquiry after being accused by the opposition of failing to maintain law and order in the state.

The chief minister has been accused of trying to shield a former minister in his cabinet who has been named in the FIR in the case. Raja Bhaiya or Raghubir Pratap Singh, an Independent MLA and local strongman from Kunda, resigned as food and civil supplies minister on Monday but has not been questioned yet.

Akhilesh Yadav has refuted the allegations against his government. "When his name was taken in the FIR, we asked Raja Bhaiya to resign the very same day. He resigned and we didn't even take a second in accepting his resignation," he told NDTV yesterday and also promised to probe ministers accused of wrongdoing. But five days after the DSP's murder, Raja Bhaiya is yet to be interrogated. (Raja Bhaiya not questioned despite Akhilesh's promise to probe ministers accused of wrongdoing)

Zia-ul-Haq had gone to Kunda to investigate the murder of a village pradhan who was killed over a land dispute. Sources say the role and responses of the local administration in Kunda will also be probed in the case.

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The police officer's post mortem report reveals he was severely beaten and dragged before being killed. The police are yet to recover the bullet that killed him.  Two of the four men suspected of killing him are yet to be arrested.

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