By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday said the government should order a CBI probe into the killing of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad as a union minister had suggested that it was a staged shootout.
Referring to Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s speech at a rally in Lalgarh Monday, BJP leader Gopinath Munde said she had raised questions over the July 2 shootout in Adilabad forests in Andhra Pradesh in which Azad was killed.
“A minister says that it was murder. Then CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) should also probe this,” he said.
Asked if the BJP was comparing the case concerning the Maoist leader with the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in which former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah is being quizzed by the CBI, Munde said that questions should also be posed to the home minister of Andhra Pradesh.
To a question about the probe against Shah being conducted under Supreme Court orders, Munde said the same process should be followed whether there was a court direction or not.
Munde said that Banerjee had spoken against the plan of action drawn by the central government against Maoists.
“There is collective responsibility of the cabinet… Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should clear the government’s position,” he said.
He said the BJP had supported the government on steps against the Maoist problem and the party was not against dialogue with those who come forward for talks after giving up violence.