Cop’s killing: Police step up probe, opposition seeks Raja Bhaiyya’s arrest

Lucknow : Police Tuesday stepped up the probe in its senior officer’s killing in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district with a team of experts visiting the area where he was brutally assaulted by a mob and shot dead even as opposition parties demanded arrest of former minister Raja Bhaiyya, who is accused in the crime.

Additional Director General (ADG) Law and Order Arun Kumar told IANS that while experts were scanning the area for the bullet that pierced the chest of Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia ul Haq, they were yet to find it.

Metal detectors and other techniques had been pressed into service at the site but so far no bullet has been found, he said.

The bullet had pierced Haq’s from the back, punctured his rib cage and exited through his chest on the right side. Other than this, the autopsy conducted by three local doctors and videographed, revealed several injuries on Haq’s body, suggesting that he had been beaten up by the mob and hit by an iron rod on his head.

Refuting contradictions in the autopsy, Arun Kumar said there was no way that there could be divergent views on the autopsy as the whole post-mortem was conducted by a panel of doctors and was filmed.

Police also stepped up its probe into the killing of village headman Nanhe Yadav and his brother Suresh Yadav too and was seeking to solve the series of crimes from the killings of the duo which culminated in the gruesome end of the young police officer.

Parveen, widow of Haq, Tuesday said she was satisfied that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe had been ordered into her husband’s death and said she trusted Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s assurance that justice would be done to her.

“I am sure that the truth would now come out and peace would come to my husband’s soul once the killers are exposed and arrested,” she added while noting that the state police in ordinary circumstances worked under tremendous political pressure.

Haq was killed by an irate mob last Saturday leading to widespread anger in the state. The widow had refused to bury him unless the chief minister personally came to meet her.

She accused Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiyya, the local legislator, of being the key conspirator in the killing of her husband. Following the controversy, Raja Bhaiyya stepped down as a cabinet minister and a CBI probe was ordered by the chief minister.

Compensation of Rs.50 lakh and a job for a family member was also announced by the Samajwadi Party government, while three policemen who fled the scene of crime, exposing Haq to a hostile crowd, were also suspended and district police chief Anil Rai shifted out.

Both houses of the state assembly were Tuesday rocked over the killing of the police official, with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress members demanding the arrest of Raja Bhaiyya.