Minister facing murder rap refuses to quit

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh minister Awadhpal Singh Yadav, an accused in a triple murder case in Etah, said that he won’t resign from government even after his name was included in the investigation on Sunday. Etah’s chief judicial magistrate on Friday had ordered an FIR against him and his relatives.
Besides the murder rap, the UP Lokayukta is conducting an inquiry into corruption charges against Awadhpal.The minister’s name was included in the investigation following direction by Etah CJM Buddhi Sagar Misra, on the petition of Anurodh Yadav, brother of one of the victims in the triple murder case.
Besides the animal husbandry minister, names of his two brothers Chandrapal Singh and Amarpal Singh, as well his son Ranjit Singh, are in the FIR. Awadhpal told reporters that he was innocent and won’t resign. He accused the Samajwadi Party of conspiring against him, claiming that SP leaders who had lodged a complaint of corruption against him before the Lokayukta are now falsely implicating him in the murder case.
He also claimed that the SP leaders bribed victim's brother to file a petition in the CJM court. Jeweler Vijay Verma, his son Abhinav Verma and their private security guard Santosh Yadav were killed in Verma's shop in Jaithra area of Etah district on June 10. Verma’s family had alleged that Awadhpal was involved but did not name him in the FIR. However, when the dead security guard’s brother Anurodh Yadav moved to the court, the CJM passed the order.
Meanwhile, DGP Brij Lal told reporters in Lucknow that 13 people were arrested in the Etah triple murder case while two were absconding. On the directions of the CJM, Brij Lal added, the police had included the name of the minister and his relatives in the investigation and were probing their alleged role in the crime. The minister's brother Chandrapal is an MLC. Awadhpal himself is a three-time MLA from Aliganj, Etah. In 2007, he was shown in a TV channel sting operation boasting that he could engineer a horse-trading to topple the SP government.
In January 2009, he compared himself and mafia-turned-politicians with Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak and Bose, saying that if the number of criminal cases lodged against somebody was the parameter to term one a criminal, then Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak and Bose were all criminals. The Mayawati government is on the back-foot over the National Rural Health Mission scam, poor law and order situation and over-expenditure on memorials. So far, the CM has been stern against erring ministers and MLAs. They include ministers Rajesh Tripathi, Babu Singh Kushwaha and Anant Mishra.