A lower court in state’s Etah district, about 300 km from here, on Saturday directed the police to lodge an FIR against the minister, his son, brother and 12 others in a murder case of three persons in the Jaithara locality of the district in June last year.
Court direction
The direction of the court came after an application was moved by the families of the victims — Vijay Singh Verma, his son Abhinav Verma and their private gunner Santosh Kumar — seeking registration of an FIR against them, according to police sources here.
The victims, who were considered political opponents of the minister, were shot dead by unidentified assailants while they were sitting in their shop at Jaithara on June 10 last year.
Application
In their application, the victims’ families had contended that the state police had refused to register a case against the minister and others when they approached them soon after the crime was committed due to the political pressures.
Vijay’s son Sonu Verma had alleged that the minister had got his father and others eliminated as he felt “politically threatened” by the former. The police had then denied that the family had approached them for registering any case against the minister, but Sonu produced a CD which contained his statement made before the media soon after the three murders, compounding problems for the minister.
The minister is already in the dock after the state Lokayukta indicted him for committing irregularities in granting contract for the construction of veterinary hospitals in the state. The minister, according to the Lokayukta, sanctioned 21 veterinary hospitals for his Assembly constituency alone and gave the contract for their construction to a company owned by his son Ranjit Singh Yadav.
He also faces allegations of grabbing village panchayat lands in his Assembly constituency. The Lokayukta has sought his reply on the allegations and rejected his application seeking more time for filing replies in the issue.