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No need for CBI probe: Mayawati

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday ruled out a CBI probe into the murder of PWD executive engineer M.K. Gupta on Wednesday, saying “suitable action had been taken against the accused.”

Violence and arson rocked Auraiya town as Samajwadi Party (SP) workers took to the streets to protest against the killing and alleged extortion by the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs for giving donations to Ms Mayawati’s birthday on January 15.

BSP MLA Shekhar Tewari has been arrested in connection with the murder.

Ms Mayawati described the murder as the fallout of a dispute with fellow engineers over commission on contracts.

She said that with two PWD engineers named in the FIR, it essentially appeared to be a departmental dispute. But once the name of the party MLA surfaced in the murder she ordered his immediate arrest.

She said that though Mr. Tewari had a criminal record, at the time of his induction into the party, he told her that he was implicated in false cases by the previous Congress, SP and BJP regimes. Only after she was convinced, she gave the election ticket to him. She also told him that if his implication in fake cases was not found to be true, he would not be spared. His “involvement” in a commission racket was being investigated, she told reporters.

Denying that the BSP was a “laboratory of criminals,” she said that persons with criminal antecedents and victims of political conspiracy had to be given a chance (to reform). She admitted that some BSP MLAs and Ministers had criminal antecedents.

She alleged that the Congress-led UPA government was dancing to the tunes of few industrialists, “who dictated the Centre’s policies.”

She alleged that the SP regime was synonymous with loot, corruption, criminals and mafia.

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