The Kavita Chowdhury murder case today claimed its second high-profile casualty: UP’s Minister of State Chaudhary Babulal.

His Rashtriya Lok Dal colleague and former minister Merajuddin Ahmed had quit his party post earlier. The Chief Minister’s Office confirmed that no decision on the resignation has been taken so far as the CMO received only a fax copy of the letter. RLD chief Ajit Singh, meanwhile, clarified that a person does not become a criminal if his name gets involved in a case. “If it was so, all the leaders in the ruling party would have resigned,” he said, pointing to the increasing chill in the relationship with SP in the wake of the murder case.

Merajuddin said some criminals and politicians had ganged up to tarnish his image. Agra strongman Babulal known for his clout over the Jat community in the belt is an MLA from Fatehpur Sikri.

Members of the community blocked the Delhi highway today demanding the resignation of Kiranpal, the SP leader whose name has cropped up.

Babulal admitted to knowing Kavita, but said he had nothing to do with her disappearance. He also accepted the fact that he helped her and SP state president Ram Saran Das clarified that the party had not asked Kiranpal or any other party leader whose name was being involved in the case, for their resignation. Senior leader Beni Prasad Verma blamed the RLD leaders in the case.

SP’s own minister Kiranpal denied any involvement in the case. He said his name was being dragged into the controversy to settle personal scores. Kiranpal said he did not know Ravindra Pradhan, who had claimed that Kiranpal was his ‘guru’. The issue has taken political colours with the Congress party chief in the state, Salman Khurshid and former PM VP Singh demanding a CBI probe.

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