CALCUTTA, 19 January 2005 — Slain legislator Mahendra Prasad Singh’s wife has charged a powerful minister and a senior police officer with killing her husband even as Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda promised a CBI investigation into the MLA’s murder.
Speaking to reporters in Calcutta yesterday, Munda said his government was determined to track down the killers irrespective of their political affiliations.
The daylight murder has raised many uncomfortable questions ahead of provincial elections in Jharkhand next month.
Mahendra, 50, Jharkhand’s lone Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) legislator, was shot dead at Dogibhoya village in Giridih district on Sunday by suspected Maoists — a theory rejected by his wife, Shanti Devi, and son Vinod Prasad Singh. Maoists too have denied their involvement. “We are living in a democratic country and we must ensure that the law takes its own course. We can’t sit idle after such a gruesome killing”, said Munda who is in Calcutta.
Within hours of Mahendra’s murder, the administration blamed Maoist guerrillas and filed a police report against three unnamed persons for pumping 13 bullets into his body at close range.
But yesterday Shanti Devi went to police in Giridih and lodged a report with naming Jharkhand Industries Minister Ravindra Rai and Giridih superintendent of police Deepak Verma as people responsible for her husband’s murder.
Police initially tried to dissuade her from filing the report arguing they had already registered a report against unnamed persons on the basis of a statement by CPI-ML worker, Vijay Singh, who witnessed the killing.
Mahendra was shot dead by three motorcycle-borne men, dressed as commandos, shortly after he had finished addressing a rally at a village in his constituency of Bagodar. police immediately blamed Maoists. But Mahendra’s family and friends insist he was eliminated by Rai and Verma.
The slain legislator’s close associate, Dipankar Bhattacharya, said: “Mahendra has been silenced because he exposed Deepak’s criminal activities. Even during the winter session of the assembly he accused the state government of shielding the superintendent of police.”
But Verma retorted that he had no problem if an inquiry is conducted by an outside agency, including the Central Bureau of Investigation. “Mahendra was a politician who raised many issues. Some of them related to me. But this does not mean that I am involved in his murder”, Verma said.
In her complaint to the police, Shanti Devi said: “My husband used to tell me again and again that Deepak Verma, SP, had threatened him since he had raised his voice against the SP in connection with (Hazaribagh lawyer) Prashant Sahay’s murder. There was also animosity with minister Ravindra Rai, who publicly threatened him with dire consequences.”
Promising an impartial investigation, Jharkhand Director-General of Police, Shivaji Mahan Cairae, said: “Prima facie it appears to be a crime committed by the Maoists. We are getting the matter investigated on a priority basis. No matter how powerful and influential the accused may be, the law will take its course.”
Mahendra’s son, Vinod, has thrown his hat into the election ring. He filed his nomination papers on Monday to contest from Bagodar which his father represented since 1990.
“I must complete my father’s unfinished task,” said the 28-year-old who makes documentary films after doing his masters in geology from Banaras Hindu University.
