Independent Morning Bureau. In the CO Ziaul Haq murder case, CBI Special Court Lucknow on Saturday gave major relief to five people including Jansatta Dal national president and Kunda MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya. The court has canceled the ongoing proceedings against them. The wife of the late CO had opposed the closure report of CBI in this case. Also, there was a demand for re-investigation of the role of all the accused in this case.
Citing lack of sufficient reason, the court of Special Judicial Magistrate Pratibha Singh ended further proceedings against Raja Bhaiya, his media in-charge Hariom Srivastava, SP leaders Gulshan Yadav, Guddu Singh and Rohit Singh. Parveen Azad, wife of the late CO, could not give any written or oral evidence in the court so that the accused could be convicted.
The then CO Ziaul Haq had reached the spot after the murder of village head Nanhe Yadav on March 2, 2013 in Balipur of Hathigwan police station area of Pratapgarh. Here the CO was shot dead. In this case, the Special CBI Court of Lucknow, on October 9, 2024, had convicted ten accused Phoolchand Yadav, Pawan Yadav, Manjeet Yadav, Ghanshyam Saroj, Ramlakhan Gautam, Chhotalal Yadav, Ram Asare, Pannalal Patel, Shivram Pasi and Jagat Bahadur Patel and sentenced them to life imprisonment and fine.
On the other hand, Ziaul Haq's wife had opposed the closure report of CBI filed earlier in this case. He had demanded a re-investigation of the role of Raja Bhaiya and other named people. The matter had reached the Supreme Court. After the Supreme order, CBI started re-investigation of the case in October 2023. Raja Bhaiya's role in the massacre was re-examined. After this, CBI again filed the closure report in the court in December 2023.
After the decision of the special CBI court, late Saturday evening, Jansatta Dal national president and Kunda MLA Raja Bhaiya said that truth can be troubled but can never be defeated. Jansatta Dal leader Dinesh Tiwari said that the workers and officials are happy with the court's decision.
Former block chief of Babaganj Hitesh Pratap Singh said that clean chit was received from CBI even before. There is an atmosphere of joy among the supporters after getting the clean chit again. Party's state president and Babaganj MLA Vinod Saroj, Kunda block chief representative Santosh Singh, Pankaj Singh, Vinod Yadav, district panchayat president representative Kuldeep Patel, Pankaj Yadav, Harshvardhan Singh congratulated each other by feeding them sweets.