2ND LD ENGINEER

Lucknow/Auraiya, Dec 25 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Mayawati Thursday rejected a Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the killing of a senior
engineer allegedly by her party MLA and his supporters which
she said was due to "tussle" over PWD contracts as a bandh
called by Samajwadi Party was marked by violence in some
places.

The autopsy on the body of the 48-year-old Public Works
Department (PWD) Executive Engineer, who was allegedly beaten
to death by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Shekhar Tiwari and
his supporters in Auraiya Wednesday, showed that he was
mercilessly beaten and could have been given electric shocks
that led to his death.

The autopsy revealed serious injuries on his head,
chest, abdomen and other parts, Superintendent of Police
Kanpur Rural, N Ravindra said Thursday.

The body of 48-year-old Gupta had 32 injuries including
on the head, that led to brain haemorrhage. He had also
suffered a fracture, said Chief Medical Officer of Auraiya.

The CMO said the engineer appears to have been badly
thrashed and his body bore signs of electric shock.

Angry protesters in the town, 100 km from Kanpur, went
on a rampage torching a bus and a police post in the district
injuring 8 policemen. Samajwadi Party workers stopped trains
in Allahabad nd took out processions in Mathura, Mainpuri,
Etawah and some other districts to protest against the
engineer's murder.

The MLA, against whom a case of murder, causing bodily
harm and kidnap has been filed, was remanded in judicial
custody for a fortnight. He was arrested in Rania in Kanpur
rural area Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, members of the Uttar Pradesh Engineers
Association gave a call for a statewide indefinite strike
saying they would cease work till its demands, including a CBI
inquiry, made in relation to Gupta's murder were met.

Association President Akhtar Ali Farooqui dismissed
chief minister's stand that the murder was a result of
intra-departmental feud.

As political parties mounted further attacks on her
party and alleged that it has set targets for its
functionaries to collect money for Mayawati's birthday
celebrations on January 15, the chief minister dismissed them
as a "mischievous campaign" against her.

"Opposition parties including the BJP, Congress and the
Samajwadi Party, which have a very poor track record, are
spreading unfounded stories and linking the murder with fund
raising for my birthday," she told a press conference.

Claiming that the murder was an outcome of a
departmental rivalry and a tussle over the issuance of PWD
contracts among the employees of the department.

"The charges against my party MLA will be probed. He
has already been arrested and sent to jail. No other party has
ever taken such stern action against their own members," she
said.

She announced that her birthday would be celebrated as a
"virodhi dal dhikkar diwas" (day of condemnation of opposition
parties).

Her main rival, SP, which utilised the opportunity to
target her government, retaliated by announcing that it would
observe January 15 as "thu, thu" (a day of spat).

A party delegation headed by former Chief Minister
Mulayam Singh Yadav met Governor T V Rajeshwar and demanded
dismissal of the Mayawati government accusing it of failure to
maintain law and order.

Yadav also dismissed demands for CBI inquiry saying it
was a clear case of murder by the MLA and his men. "When he
took the body to police station why was he not not arrested.
Who stopped the arrest," he asked when he talked to reporters.

About 20 SP workers were arrested in Mathura during a
protest. in Allahabad, protesting SP workers stopped a train,
while in Etawah, Mainpuri, Aligarh and Auraiya processions
were taken out. Shopkeepers kept their shutters down in
several other areas also.

Party supporters in Auraiya town clashed with the
police during a procession led by former party MLA Kamlesh
Pathak. The clashes occurred when the SP supporters tried to
burn the effigy of Mayawati, police sources said, adding that
mild force was used to disperse the protesters.

In the state capital, party MP, Akhilesh Yadav and
state unit president Shivpal Singh Yadav led a demonstration,
party sources said. SP activists also tried to force closure
of shops in commercial localities like Katra, Chowk and
Kydganj in Allahabad. They were either chased away by police
or in some cases detained and let off with a warning.

SP General Secretary told a press conference in Delhi
that the Mayawati government used force to "crush" a peaceful
protest in Uttar Pradesh and asked Home Minister P
Chidambaram to "wake up" to the incidents taking place in the
state.

"While the Home Minister has sent additional forces to
Orissa, I request him to wake up to the developments taking
place in UP...Centre cannot remain a mute spectator to
the goings on in the state," he said. PTI SAB
DEP
NNNN