By IANS,
Lucknow : Union Micro, Small and Medium Industries Minister Mahavir Prasad has been booked in a January 2008 murder in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district, police here said Wednesday.
Prasad, a Congress leader, and two others were Tuesday night charged with killing a villager in Gorakhpur district’s Gagha area, about 270 km from here, allegedly over a property dispute, a police official said. The police action followed a direction from the Allahabad High Court earlier in the day.
Shubhawati of Ujjarpar village in the area had registered a case in the Gagha police station against Prasad and two others, including village head Gauri Shanker, for killing her husband in January 2008.
She alleged that the three had run over her husband in a jeep.
An accident case was registered initially but Shubhawati later moved a local court in Gorakhpur that rejected her plea. Following this, Shubhawati moved the high court, which directed that Prasad be named as co-accused in the murder case.
Prasad was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bansgaon in Gorakhpur in 2004. He has also earlier served as union minister in previous Congress governments. Besides, he has also served as governor of Haryana.