Minister 'linked' to dead lecturer resigns
He was facing allegations of having a relationship with Kavita Rani, a lecturer with the Chaudhry Charan Singh University in Meerut who was murdered in October, reports S Raju.
Uttar Pradesh Minister for Food Supplies Babulal resigned from the Mulayam Singh Yadav ministry on Tuesday. He was facing allegations of having a relationship with Kavita Rani, a lecturer with the Chaudhry Charan Singh University in Meerut who was murdered in October. Babulal belongs to the Rashtriya Lok Dal, an ally of the ruling Samajwadi Party.
Denying links to the murder, Babulal said he was quitting on moral grounds, RLD spokesman Anil Dubey said in Lucknow.
Babulal had allegedly called Kavita 30 times on her mobile, while she called him 27 times in the eight days before she went missing.
Babulal is the second RLD leader to face the heat in the murder case. On Monday, former minister Meerajuddin resigned from the RLD after Ravindra Pradhan, the main accused in the Rani murder case, took his name at a press conference. Meerajuddin also denied the allegations linking him to the dead lecturer.
Pradhan, Kavita and another accused Yogesh used to blackmail politicians and other high-profile persons with CDs involving them in compromising situations, the police maintains.
Pradhan alleged that they had extorted Rs 35 lakh from Meerajuddin in exchange for a CD featuring him and Kavita. He said Kavita had shot the film with a hidden camera in Lucknow while Meerajuddin was irrigation minister. Meerajuddin claimed he had been falsely implicated and said it was a conspiracy against him.
Refusing to take names, he said, “things would be cleared up in the coming days.”
Kavita’s family members had charged the police with a cover-up after they cleared both Babulal and Meerajuddin of any involvement in the murder case.
The police is trying to recover Kavita’s body, which was thrown in the Madhya Ganga canal near Ghaziabad after her murder on October 24.
Fresh twist
Meanwhile, a person, Trilok Singh, surrendered to the Delhi Police claiming to be an accomplice of Kavita. He said he was involved in the conspiracy to kill the Meerut lecturer. Singh surrendered at the Pahar Ganj police station on Tuesday evening.
The Delhi Police were surprised by the development. “We are interrogating verifying the details,” said Alok Kumar DCP, Central District. Kavita had accused Singh of making threatening calls to her.