Murder accused MP minister missing

Bhopal: The police on Tuesday raided the official bungalow of Madhya Pradesh general administration minister Lal Singh Arya to execute an arrest warrant issued by a court in the state in connection with the murder of a Congress MLA in 2009 but failed to find him.

A three-member police team from Bhind in MP reached Bhopal in the morning to arrest the minister following a directive from the local court.

The police team visited the minister’s official chamber in the state secretariat as well as his bungalow to execute the arrest warrant. But, the team failed to ‘trace’ the minister.

“The security personnel deployed at the minister’s bungalow here told us that Mr Arya has not visited his official residence since December 4.

We have searched his entire bungalow but could not find him”, a member of the police team told this newspaper.

Interestingly, the minister also failed to turn up at the state cabinet meeting held on Tuesday.

The special CBI court in Bhind has directed the police to produce the minister on December 19 following his failure to respond to summon issued by it earlier.

In fact, the court has so far issued six arrest warrants against the minister.

The minister has moved the Supreme Court for anticipatory bail.

The court has earlier declared the minister as co-accused in the killing of Congress MLA Makhanlal Jatav in 2009.

The Congress leader was shot dead when he was addressing an election meeting at Cherant under Gohad block in Bhind district on April 13, 2009.

State minister for public works Ram Pal Singh, however, defended his colleague saying that “Everyone has right to put his version before the court”.

State parliamentary affairs minister Narottam Mishra denied the charges made by the Congress that the state government was shielding the minister in the case.