Lucknow: Former Uttar Pradesh minister and MLA from Kunda in Pratapgarh, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, received relief on Saturday after a special CBI court in Lucknow accepted the agency’s closure report in the 2013 murder case of deputy superintendent of police Zia-ul-Haq, who was then serving as the circle officer in Kunda.Special judicial magistrate (CBI) Pratibha Singh passed the order after examining the material collected during the CBI’s fresh investigation and hearing the parties.On March 2, 2013, Balipur village pradhan Nanhe Singh Yadav was killed after which his supporters reached the village with weapons.Due to the chaos, Kunda’s Kotwal Sarvesh Mishra could not muster courage to visit Yadav’s house with his team.DySP Zia-ul-Haq moved towards the village head’s house from another road. As the villagers were firing, gunner Imran and SSI, Kunda, Vinay Kumar Singh, who were deployed for Haq’s security, hid in a field. As soon as Haq reached the village, the villagers surrounded him and lynched him.Two FIRs were registered in connection with the killing – one by the then SHO of Hathgawan and another by Parveen Azad, wife of slain DySP.Parveen Azad alleged a conspiracy behind her husband’s murder and named Raja Bhaiya, Gulshan Yadav, Hariom Srivastava, Guddu Singh and Rohit Singh in the case.CBI counsel KP Singh told TOI that both the cases were merged into one, and CBI also filed a chargesheet in 2013.“CBI initially submitted a closure report on July 31, 2013. Parveen Azad subsequently filed a protest petition challenging the report. The court later directed investigation, but CBI moved the Allahabad high court against the order which the court set aside,” said Singh.Parveen then moved the Supreme Court, which directed the CBI to conduct a fresh investigation.“The agency again filed a closure report before the special court on Dec 22, 2023, stating there was insufficient evidence to proceed against Raja Bhaiya and the other accused in the case,” said Singh.In its order, the court found no sufficient ground to proceed against Raja Bhaiya, Gulshan Yadav, Hariom Srivastava, Guddu Singh and Rohit Singh.The court observed that after examining the material available on record and the CBI’s further investigation, it found no sufficient basis for the arguments raised in the complainant’s protest petition.The court accepted the CBI’s closure report and terminated the proceedings against all five accused.
