Who was Rajendra Yadav? Till his daylight murder in Kunda last week, he was known as the pradhan of Banamau village and a confidant of Independent MLA Raja Bhaiyya. Now, police officials investigating the confounding criminal cases against Raja Bhaiyya and his father Uday Pratap Singh admit that Yadav, in fact, was walking the tightrope and playing the dubious role of a double agent.Yadav’s importance in Kunda’s high-voltage drama was that on January 21, he had given a confessional statement in court (under Section 144, CrPC) implicating Raja Bhaiyya in the Santosh Mishra murder case. A portion of the single-page statement reads: ‘‘Raja Bhaiyya himself beat up Santosh Mishra.then he ordered his men to throw the body in the crocodile lake in Behti.’’Yadav had also given a confessional statement in the POTA case against Raja Bhaiyya but that was only to the police. He was silenced before he could record the Section 144 statement before a magistrate.Yadav was present when Mishra was clobbered to death in Behti on June 9, 2001 and his testimony assumes importance since the police strongly suspect that it is Mishra’s skull that was flushed out from the lake a few days ago. Says Kunda Circle Officer R.S. Pandey: ‘‘The skull was recovered by Hari Om Srivastava who drove the car to the lake when the body was dumped. Though the DNA test is yet to be completed, I am very confident it will match with that of Mishra’s kin.’’With Yadav eliminated, the police have only the confessional statements of Guddu Pandey, the other eyewitness to the murder and that of Mishra’s wife, Vineeta, to link Raja Bhaiyya with the murder.The SHO of Kunda, Paramhans Mishra, goes a step further in elaborating on Yadav’s role. He says Raja Bhaiyya and Yadav had fallen out over the murder of another Banamau villager named Binda Paasi, allegedly by Raja Bhaiyya’s men. And guess where a dismembered arm of the villager (identified with his rings) was recovered from about a year ago? The same infamous crocodile lake.Says Mishra, ‘‘Yadav was useful to us as a mole because though he had developed animosity to Raja Bhaiyya, he was still part of his circle. In fact, he gave the police some important leads which eventually resulted in the arrest of Raja Bhaiyya’s father on January 25.’’Officials say that despite having decided to assist the police, Yadav twice visited Raja Bhaiyya in Banda Jail. But since his confessional in the Santosh Mishra murder case was recorded in an open court, he realised his life may be in danger. On February 2, he was shot at point-blank range while he was on his way to Pratapgarh to petition the District Magistrate for security.Yadav’s father, Badhranath, who was present at the time of the shoot-out, says he has now given a statement to the police that two of Raja Bhaiyya’s men — Gulshan Yadav and Nanhey Singh — were among the four who attacked his son. The police say they have spread a dragnet for the suspects and beefed up security in the district.Meanwhile, Raja Bhaiyya’s family categorically say their supporters have no role in Yadav’s murder. Says his mother Manjula Raje: ‘‘The police will use the confession of a dead man to implicate Raja Bhaiyya in the Santosh Mishra murder case. This is very convenient. Who knows in how many days Rajendra Yadav would have withdrawn in his so-called confessional?’’
