Murder accused held at min’s press meet, released

KANPUR: A high-voltage drama erupted in Mahoba on Saturday when crime branch sleuths interrupted the press conference of state agriculture minister Rajiv Kumar and arrested one of his associates on charges of murder. Though the minister did not react to the action, there was a scuffle between his supporters and the police.
Despite arrest, police could not hold the accused and were allegedly forced to release him under intense political pressure within hours of his arrest.
Reports stated that Rajiv Kumar was in Mahoba to campaign in the by-election to be held in Charkhari. When he was addressing a press conference to tell about the details of good works that his government has done for farmers at the venue full of supporters and reporters, crime branch personnel reached their and tried to arrest one of his supporters. He was identified as Avnindra Singh alias Raju Singh, a nephew of BSP leader Badshah Singh, who is already in jail in connection with LAKFED scam.
Raju Singh is accused of killing Bharat Mishra, an associate of his brother Sonu Singh, on March 11 during a shootout between them in which one more person was seriously injured. The two brothers were having a dispute for a long time.
The two brothers lodged cross FIRs against each other and Sonu was arrested. However, political backing from SP helped Raju to evade arrest.
Earlier, the police had moved the court to attach his property.
On Saturday, police came to know that Raju is present in the press conference and reached there to arrest him. Even as the SP workers became violent and tried to prevent police from arresting Raju, the minister kept mum. Police managed to arrest Raju but released him after alleged political pressure.
SP Mahoba Ram Kishore said that Raju was set free as the police did not have enough evidence against him.