DSP murder: Central Bureau of Investigation tells villagers to return home and help in probe

In a bid to instill confidence among the villagers of Balipur in Pratapgarh district, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday appealed them to return to their homes and help the agency probe the murder of Dy SP Ziaul Haque, village pradhan Nanhe Yadav and his younger brother Suresh Yadav. Most woman, children and aged men have left the village and children have stopped attending school.

The CBI has also set up a camp office at Panchayat Bhawan in Kunda village on Allahabad-Lucknow highway. The agency believes that there is tremendous pressure on the locals to keep mum on the issue. Local MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya, against whom several cases are pending in courts and police stations, is an accused in the case.

On March 2 evening, Nanhe Yadav was shot dead near his house in Balipur. His death sparked a chain of events which led to the killing of his younger brother Suresh Yadav and DySP Ziaul Haque, who was the circle officer of Kunda.

A CBI officer said it would be a big challenge to convince villagers to provide the sequence of events and collect clues about the missing pistol of Haque.

The CBI, meanwhile, has promised the villagers to keep the identity of informants secret, if needed.

"CBI reassures that no citizen would face any harassment during the investigations and appeals to residents, some of whom seem to have made themselves unavailable, to return to their homes and assist CBI in a fair probe," a CBI spokesperson said.

The only persons the CBI has so far quizzed are eight local police officials. some whom were present with Haque when he went to the village. On Sunday, the CBI once again called inspector Sarvesh Mishra, the former in-charge of the Kunda police station, for questioning.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Cong to cash in on SP govt’s ‘neglect’ of minorities

At AMU, students more bothered about ban on motorbikes than wearing sherwanis

Mulayam pep talk for backward caste leaders

Acquitted in riot case, Varun free of all charges in Pilibhit