DIG’s wife, BJP’s politics: Lucknow murder gets murky

After the Madhumita Shukla murder, another crime story is rocking Lucknow and its politics. Today the UP police arrested two women BJP leade...

After the Madhumita Shukla murder, another crime story is rocking Lucknow and its politics. Today the UP police arrested two women BJP leaders for the murder of the city unit president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, Malti Sharma. One of them, Alka Mishra, is a BJP corporator and wife of DIG (Prisons) P K Mishra.

The police say it’s a story of political ambitions and rivalry. Malti Sharma, 45, was getting increasingly powerful and was a serious contender for the Shanker Purwa ward in Mahona constituency. Alka Mishra, 40, is the sitting corporator. The other woman held, Deepa Singh, 26, is the ward head of the Mahila Morcha. Elections to the corporation is expected to be scheduled for January-February, 2005.

The BJP which had planned a demonstration today to demand immediate action on the murder called it off and leaders disappeared from media gaze. None of the city leaders—including Lalji Tandon—was available for comment. Sources say the party leadership has instructed Lucknow to keep quiet.

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The police had earlier arrested Raj Kumar Rai, a police constable, who was on duty as her security guard. The two women were detained on Friday night. This afternoon, a team including SP (Crime) Kamal Asthana and SP (Trans-Gomti) Ram Babu Singh, interrogated them for nearly two hours before arresting them.

‘‘We have got initial evidence of their involvement in the crime. Alka Mishra says that she is innocent, but we have reasons to believe that she was part of the conspiracy,’’ Ashtana says.

During the interrogation, Rai reportedly alleged that Alka Mishra had struck a deal with him to arrange the killing of Malti. Malti had always been Alka’s rival in the party and Alka feared she would upstage her in the fight for a ticket, it is alleged.

Rai was allegedly asked to bring Malti to an isolated place and hand her over to ‘‘Alka’s men.’’ On the night of June 7, Rai alleged, he handed over Malti to Alka’s men and went away to Delhi. Rai told the police that he had left the scene before the murder. He alleged that the men brought by Alka were undertrials and her husband helped her arrange the assassins.

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Official sources confirmed that the police would investigate DIG (Prison) too. ‘‘We are investigating as to who had pulled the trigger—Rai or Alka Mishra’s alleged hirelings,’’ says an officer.

The police had compared Rai’s interrogation with the telephone records of Alka Mishra, Deepa Singh and Rai’s brother and sister-in-law. ‘‘Rai had called up Deepa Singh, asking her to pass a telephone number to Alka Mishra. He wanted Alka Mishra to contact him on this number,’’ a police officer says.

Rai had also called up Alka Mishra. ‘‘He was quite abusive and had asked Alka Mishra to deposit Rs 10 lakh in an account of his relative. He was demanding the money that she had promised to give after the murder,’’ say police sources, who reportedly have the taped conversation.