'Osama Bin Laden is my guru': UP official puts terrorist's photo in office

To the world, Osama Bin Laden might have been a dreaded terrorist, who had formed the terror outfit Al Qaeda, but for a senior official of the Uttar Pradesh Power department he (Bin Laden) was the ''best engineer'' of the world.

The official, identified as Ravindra Prakash Gautam, the sub-divisional officer (SDO) at Nawabganj town in the state's Farrukhabad district, about 250 kilometres from Lucknow, had so much liking for Laden that he installed the terrorist's picture in his office. The photo also carried a caption— ''Osama Bin Laden-World's best junior engineer''.

The matter came to light when the other employees of the department reached their office on Tuesday and much to their shock, found Laden's photo on the walls of the waiting room at the SDO's office. ''Laden is my guru,'' Gautam told the employees when they queried him in this regard.

Senior officials swung into action immediately after being informed about the matter and had the photo removed from the walls. ''A committee has been set up to probe the matter...further action in the matter will be decided after the report of the committee is submitted,'' said a senior official of the department in Farrukhabad on Wednesday..

Gautam, however, remained unapologetic and said that he had several pictures of Laden and that he would install another photo of the terrorist.

Laden, who was allegedly the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, was killed by US Navy Seals in May 2011 at Abbottabad in Pakistan.