M A I N   N E W S

UP minister Babulal quits
His name figured in letters found in Kavita Rani’s room 

Lucknow, December 26
Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Food Processing and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Babulal today resigned from the Mulayam Singh Yadav Ministry in the wake of reports linking him with the murdered Meerut lecturer Kavita Rani.

Babulal met RLD Chief Ajit Singh in Delhi and handed over his resignation. Singh in turn forwarded it to the Chief Minister, according to sources here. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh ruled out a CBI probe in the murder. The minister's name was among the several that figured in the letters found in the hostel room of the lecturer in the Chaudhry Charan Singh University in Meerut.

She had before her disappearance on October 24 alleged in the letters that she had received threats from various people including Babulal. He is alleged to have spoken to Kavita on her mobile on over 50 occasions. Yesterday, the Meerut police and the prime suspect in the case Ravindra Pradhan had claimed that she was murdered because she was pestering him for a greater share in the money they had extorted from a former minister Meerajuddin.

The former minister was allegedly caught in a compromising position in a CD in his bedroom in his house here, Pradhan had claimed. Meerajuddin, who denied Pradhan's charge, had also resigned from RLD yesterday claiming to be innocent and would keep out of politics till his name is cleared.

SP leader Beni Prasad Verma today said that the Uttar Pradesh Government was committed to ensuring that the guilty in the Kavita Rani murder case were punished. Commenting on the controversy over the killing of lecturer Kavita Rani, the Lok Sabha MP said police investigations into the case were on and nobody found guilty would be spared.