When it comes to politicians from the ruling party, Uttar Pradesh Police, who otherwise take years to solve cases, complete the investigation within hours and quite obviously find nothing against them.

Within 24 hours of being booked in a case of dacoity in Sambhal district, about 300 kilometres from here, UP minister Iqbal Mehmoond was given a clean chit by police, who said they investigated the matter “thoroughly” but did not find any evidence against him.

Going a step further, the state government, apparently not happy with the Sambhal Superintendent of Police Piyush Srivastava for booking the minister, shunted him out late on Friday night and kept him on the waiting list.

An FIR was registered against Iqbal Mehmoond and 14 others on Wednesday and police were directed to start the investigation.

The minister had been booked on the direction of the local court after lawyer Nutan Vijay, a former president of the District Bar Council, had alleged that he had been robbed of his gold chain and threatened by the goons of the minister in May.

Vijay and some others had burnt the effigy of Mehmoond accusing him of not honouring his promises made to the lawyers in the district. The minister was allegedly angry with Vijay over the incident.

Showing alacrity, police completed the investigation within a day itself and gave a clean chit to the minister on Thursday.

Police claimed that they had spoken to many people in connection with the alleged incident but none of them could vouch for it.

Vijay, however, said he would again move the court and seek investigation by some other agency.

Samajwadi Party leaders lent support to the minister and slammed the senior cop for showing “undue haste” in booking him.

Earlier also, woman IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal had been suspended by the state government reportedly after she cracked down on the sand mafia in Noida.