GUWAHATI/NEW DELHI, 18 August — Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan, accused of involvement in the killing of a journalist, yesterday rejected demands for his DNA testing.

"I don’t want to comment anything on this issue. The only thing I would like to ask is: would anybody allow his or her daughter or son to go for a DNA testing," Mahajan replied when queried by reporters here.

Supporters of the main opposition Congress party shouted slogans and waved placards demanding Mahajan’s resignation.

Mahajan was in Guwahati, Assam’s principal city, to inaugurate a Community Information Center (CIC). Through such centers, at least 500 villages in the northeastern region would get Internet connections.

"How can a minister accused of being involved in the murder of a journalist remain in office? He should resign immediately on moral grounds and allow the judiciary take its own course," Assam Youth Congress President Rekibuddin Ahmed told reporters after the protest.

"His remaining in power would prejudice justice," Ahmed said.

The demand for Mahajan’s DNA testing was made Friday by Komal Sharma, the younger daughter of senior police officer R.K. Sharma, who is the prime suspect in the killing of Shivani Bhatnagar.

Komal Sharma said Mahajan must undergo DNA testing to prove that he wasn’t the father of Bhatnagar’s three-year-old son.

Speaking to reporters at her father’s house in Panchkula on the outskirts of Chandigarh, Komal said her father had offered to give Delhi Police his blood sample with a proviso: If it proved negative, DNA testing would be conducted on a politician he would name.

On Thursday, the police officer’s wife, Madhu Sharma, alleged that Mahajan had ordered Shivani be killed. This was denied Friday by Mahajan, who said he only shared a professional relationship with Shivani, like he did with other journalists.

Sharma has been on the run for more than a fortnight, ever since the first arrest was announced in the case.

Shivani was strangled with a wire and stabbed in the neck and the abdomen on Jan. 23, 1999. The assailants did not harm her three-month-old son, Tanmay, who was in the house at the time of the murder.

Shivani and Sharma had got to know each other when Sharma was posted at the Prime Minister’s Office and Shivani was assigned to cover the beat. She was a special correspondent of the Indian Express newspaper at the time of her death.

Meanwhile, Sharma filed a petition for anticipatory bail in the Delhi High Court yesterday.

The petition is likely to be taken up on Tuesday, Sharma’s counsel Mohit Mathur said. Sharma contended that he was a senior police officer and that he would be suspended and might even be sacked if arrested.

He said that over the past three years, he had been interrogated at least 15 times in the case and had undergone polygraph tests on three occasions. Sharma has been on the run for more than a fortnight, ever since the first arrest was announced in the case.