By IANS
Chandigarh/Gurgaon : In a virtual u-turn, the Haryana government Friday announced that it was handing over the murder of controversial Delhi Police assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Rajbir Singh to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“I have directed the Haryana director general of police to write to the CBI to take up investigation of this case,” Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said Friday.
Hooda said Haryana was ready for a CBI probe provided someone from the family of Rajbir Singh, 48, killed Sunday, made the request.
“I got a call from his family last night, requesting for CBI probe and I have ordered accordingly,” said Hooda.
Friday’s stance of the Haryana government is in contrast to what Hooda and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Hooda Thursday told the state assembly that there was no need for a CBI probe as it did not involve a law and order problem and the killing took place due to a personal dispute between two friends.
But Haryana Police officials say it is entirely up to the CBI whether it wants to take up the investigation.
The Gurgaon police are at present investigating the matter.
The move to hand over the probe to the CBI came after Singh’s family, including his wife Narmada Singh, blamed the Gurgaon police for shoddy investigation and demanded investigation by the central agency.
Narmada Singh also punctured the confessional statement of Vijay Bhardwaj, who claimed he killed Singh in his Sector-14 Gurgaon office over a monetary row late Monday.
Bhardwaj is now in the custody of the Gurgaon police.
“It is not so easy to kill a top cop,” Narmada Singh said and added: “Vijay alone can’t kill my husband. He is merely a real estate agent and would not have the courage to eliminate my husband unless he was pressurized. There could be more people involved in the crime.”
“We can’t believe the Gurgaon police, who are changing their statements every day. We suspect the police are saving the skin of some people. Death of a top cop, who had done so much for the country, should be probed by a higher agency,” she added.
On Friday the Gurgaon police sent the .32 bore revolver, with which Singh was shot dead, to the forensic lab.
“We have sent the gun to forensic lab to ascertain the identity of its owner,” said a senior investigating police officer.
Bhardwaj in his statement to the police claimed that the gun was given to him by Singh, but the police during investigations later found that the weapon belonged to a man from Jhajjhar, Haryana.
After detailed investigation of the gun, police officials were stunned to learn that the gun didn’t belong the person in Jhajjhar.
The police teams Friday also swooped down on Bhardwaj’s office on Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road and claimed to have recovered some incriminating documents.
“Investigations suggest that Bhardwaj owed Rs.60 million to 33 people and was under huge pressure to pay it back. He was also part of the cricket betting racket,” the official added.