Thaindian News

Lucknow, Dec 27 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh government’s twist to the raging controversy over the lynching of a Public Works Department (PWD) engineer, alleging “departmental rivalry and kickbacks” as the reason for the crime, seems to have fallen flat with a minister stating that “no PWD engineer was involved in the murder”.The police have now retracted their claim that two PWD engineers had joined ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Shekhar Tiwari to lynch engineer M.K. Gupta on Wednesday in Auraiya district, 250 km from here.

Now the brutal killing is being attributed to two local BSP workers, who are known to be the cohorts of the Tiwari, whose name spells terror in Auraiya.

Gupta was beaten to death in the early hours Wednesday in Auraiya because he declined to meet the MLA’s demand of Rs.50 lakhs (Rs.5 million) for Chief Minister Mayawati’s birthday bash Jan 15 - a charge the government has refuted.

With all the PWD engineers proceeding on strike not only to protest the killing but also to refute the charge of “departmental rivalry”, PWD Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui admitted, “No PWD engineer was involved in the murder”.

The FIR registered with the local police station in Auraiya, barely three hours after Gupta was beaten and dragged out of his home Wednesday morning, simply mentioned the names of two persons - “Tyagi and Bhatia” that his wife Shashi Gupta had overheard from her bathroom where she was locked in by the goons.

State Director General of Police Vikram Singh had asserted Wednesday, “We have already identified Tyagi as a junior engineer working under M.K. Gupta, while Bhatia’s identity is still being established. But we are confident of arresting them soon.”

Chief Minister Mayawati too addressed a press conference Thursday to echo what her DGP had said.

Now the police have done a u-turn from their earlier stand and conceded that the assailants were not departmental engineers.

However, the cops are still not willing to divulge the identity of the actual culprits.

“We have zeroed in on the actual culprits, but it would be premature to disclose their identities as it could adversely affect the course of the investigations,” said Additional Director General of Police (Law and order) Brij Lal.

Even as the real identity of “Bhatia and Tyagi” remains unknown, sources in the Auraiya district administration have confided that one of the people mentioned in the FIR as Bhatia could be the BSP district president of Auraiya, Yogendra Dohre, who is commonly addressed by his nickname “Bhatia”.