By IANS,
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government Tuesday asked for a police probe into the death of Indian Justice Party (IJP) candidate Bahadur Sonkar in Jaunpur, whose relatives claim he was murdered. The police have termed it a suicide.
Sonkar’s body was found hanging from a tree in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur town Monday morning. He was contesting against the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Dhananjay Singh, a mafia don turned politician. Sonkar’s relatives have blamed the BSP for the death.
The Mayawati government has ordered a Criminal Investigation Department probe into Sonkar’s death.
Giving details of the post-mortem examination report, state additional director general of police (law and order) Brij Lal told mediapersons here Tuesday evening: “The post-mortem report talks only about a few lacerated wounds on the forehead and neck while the manner in which saliva and other fluids were found to have oozed from his mouth also indicates suicide.”
He also pointed out, “The height at which the body was hanging from the tree with just a ‘gamcha’ (thin towel) shows that it was not a simple task that could have been carried out by just anyone.”
He was, however, at his wit’s end when a scribe asked how under the circumstances Sonkar could have managed to hang himself on his own.
He said, “ADG (CID) Padman Singh is in Jaunpur to personally supervise the investigations which are being carried out on top priority.”
Sonkar’s family insist he was murdered by BSP candidate Dhananjay Singh to get him out of the way.
The victim’s brother Barhu Ram Sonkar told IANS: “We are convinced that he was murdered and then hung from the tree to give it the colour of suicide. That is why we are demanding that the case be handed over to CBI.”
He said that Sonkar was repeatedly intimidated by local deputy superintendent of police Ditendra Chaudhary, who asked him to withdraw from the election fray. “Even the written complaints made by my brother to both the district superintendent of police as well as the district magistrate remained unheeded,” he said.
“We have every reason to believe that the murder was the handiwork of Dhananjay Singh, who is a dreaded mafia don in this region because of the number of heinous criminal cases pending against him.”