By IANS,
Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh assembly Thursday again witnessed unruly scenes as the opposition demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the murder of a public works enginer allegedly by a ruling party legislator.
Executive engineer Gupta was allegedly lynched Dec 24 by ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Shekhar Tiwari in Auraiya town, about 225 km from here.
Led by the Samajwadi Party, opposition members stormed into the well of the house protesting what they termed as “concealment of facts” by the government. The Bhartiya Janata Party staged a walkout on the issue.
The noisy scenes led Speaker Sukhdeo Rajbhar eventually to adjourn the house in the afternoon.
Leader of Opposition and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said, “Only a CBI probe would unravel the truth behind the murder of the executive engineer, who was brutally killed because he refused to concede to the extortionist demands of a ruling party MLA (legislator).”
“Why the government was desperate to prevent any move to hand over the investigations in the case to the CBI?” he asked.
Lashing out at the government led by Chief Minister Mayawati, he said: “Even those who attempted to raise their voice against the killing have been on the administration’s target.”
He alleged that his party legislator Kamlesh Pathak was being victimised for raising the issue.
“No sooner than Kamlesh Pathak chose to raise the issues with the government, the police not only slapped a number of criminal cases against him but also invoked stringent laws like the National Security Act (NSA) and the Gangsters Act against him,” Mulayam Singh Yadav claimed.
Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari said: “Only a CBI inquiry into Gupta’s murder would expose the real motive behind the killing.”
“An impartial inquiry into the circumstances that led to the murder is extremely important, and no state agency can be expected to give an independent report since a ruling party legislator was directly involved in the murder,” Tiwari said.
Rashtriya Lok Dal member Kaukab Hameed seconded Mulayam’s views and said the government and the state police were “moving heaven and earth to keep the motive behind the murder under wraps”.