Supreme Court of India.
Credit: PTI File Photo
The Supreme Court has cleared the decks for CBI investigation into the role of former Uttar Pradesh minister and a sitting MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya in the 2013 sensational killing of a senior police official, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Zia-ul-Haq.
A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi said the high court took a hyper technical view between re-investigation and further investigation by setting aside the trial court's order to probe his role.
The Allahabad High Court had held that the special CBI court’s order passed on July 8, 2014, amounted to a “re-investigation”.
The top court set aside a November 2022 order passed by the high court, which stayed a trial court’s decision of July 2014 rejecting the closure report submitted by CBI against Raja Bhaiya and four of his accomplices and ordering further investigation in the matter.
The trial court had asked CBI to probe Raja Bhaiya’s role, who was then a minister in the state government, along with Gulshan Yadav, then chairman of Kunda Nagar Panchayat, and three accomplices of the Kunda MLA - Hariom Shrivastava, Rohit Singh and Guddu Singh.
The apex court, while reviving the trial court’s order, said there is no error on part of the magistrate directing further investigation.
The court's order came on a petition filed by Parveen Azad, widow of the slain officer, who was killed on March 2, 2013 while on duty. Azad had named the accused persons in her complaint to the police soon after the incident.
In her petition, Azad accused CBI of ignoring important facts in the case pointing to the role of Raja Bhaiya and also questioned how the police team deserted her husband as no other police personnel received any injuries.
Haq had reached Ballipur village in Kunda after four persons murdered the village pradhan Nanhe Yadav. Haq took Yadav to the hospital but could not save him. Later, 300 persons gathered while he was bringing the body back to the village. He came under attack from the mob and an alleged accomplice of Raja Bhaiya, shot the police officer, which proved fatal for him.
Azad filed a protest petition after the CBI submitted a closure report on her complaint on July 31, 2013.
Raja Bhaiya is currently a member of the UP legislative assembly from Kunda constituency and exercised considerable influence in surrounding areas.