Sonekar’s death: ‘tainted’ cops get clean chit,then EC’s marching orders

On Monday,Chaudhary and Rai,in addition to Additional SP of Jaunpur,Ram Kishore,were shifted out of Jaunpur by the EC.

The transfer order came even as the state police chief,at a press conference in Lucknow,gave a clean chit to the local police and said it was a case of suicide.

Flanked by Principal Secretary (Home) Manjit Singh and ADG (Crime Branch-CID) Padman Singh,state DGP Vikram Singh said what drove Sonekar to suicide is not known and the investigation had been transferred to the CB-CID.

The DGP said an inquiry conducted by Padman Singh,who had been camping in Jaunpur since April 13,had found no evidence of murder. “The evidence collected during the inquiry established it a case of suicide. The postmortem showed the death was caused by asphyxia as a result of hanging.” The inquiry report had been sent to the Election Commission,he said.

Defending the local police,he added: “The inquiry found the allegation against the CO and the SO about making threatening calls to Sonekar on April 8 baseless. They had contacted the candidate to ensure he comes for his meeting with the DM the next day.”

Addressing a public meeting in Jaunpur two days ago,Chief Minister Mayawati had also refuted allegations made by Sonekar’s family that it was murder and Dhananjay Singh was behind it.

Meanwhile,Sonekar’s family rejected outright the DGP’s statements and termed the UP police as “biased and prejudiced” towards safeguarding the image of the BSP government.

“There should be some logic in jumping to the conclusion (suicide case). Had they (the cops) found any report of family tension or quarrel among the brothers or any illicit relation or poverty to establish the theory of suicide? Are they God that they know that my brother had committed suicide,” Badu Sonekar,an advocate and younger brother of Bahadur,told The Indian

Express over the phone. “My brother was the head of our family and we had never quarreled over property or any other issue.”

Bahadur’s wife Sharda,agitated over the police version,said: “Is sarkar ke rahte sahi vivechana nahi ho payeji. Ye baat hum log pahle se jante the ki police is ghatana ko atmhatya hi sabit karegi. Mere pati ki maut ki vivechana CBI se karai jaye. (An impartial inquiry was not expected from this government. We knew beforehand that the police were out to establish the death as a case of suicide. The case be handed over to the CBI.)”