M A I N   N E W S

And, here’s Mahabir Prasad, Union Minister and former Governor of Haryana, who has been booked for conspiracy
‘What’s moral about a murder case?’

New Delhi, February 11
Union minister Mahabir Prasad termed the murder allegation levelled against him in a murder case as a “political conspiracy” and parried a query if he was considering resigning from the government.

“It is a political conspiracy,” he told reporters when asked about the conspiracy charge registered against him in a murder case in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Asked if it would be morally correct for him to resign now, 69-year-old Prasad said, “What is moral about it? We have been winning elections and will do so in future. There is just one word to describe this (case) and it’s a political conspiracy,” said the Scheduled Caste leader from Bansgaon.

The case was lodged on the direction of the Allahabad High Court under section 120 B IPC (conspiracy) against the Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Gagha Police station in Gorakhpur last night, according to police.

Prasad was elected from Bansgaon in Gorakhpur in 2004. He was elected to the Lok Sabha thrice before in 1980, in 1984 and in 1989. He was Union Deputy Minister of Railways from February 1988 to July 1989 and Minister of State for Mines and Steel from July 1989 to December 1989.

He also served as Governor of Haryana from 1995 to 2000 with additional charge of Governor of Himachal Pradesh.

JMM chief Sibu Soren, who had to resign from the Union Cabinet following his conviction in a murder case, today demanded resignation of Union Minister Mahavir Prasad booked for his alleged conspiracy in a murder case.

“He should definitely put in his papers,” Soren told reporters when asked whether the Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Industries should resign after a case was lodged against him at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh on the directions of the Allahabad High Court for alleged conspiracy in a murder.

The JMM chief said the Constitution should apply equally to all and Prasad too should step down. Soren had to quit the Manmohan Singh Cabinet twice because of criminal cases against him.

In 2004, when he was a Union Minister, he went into hiding after a court in Jamtara issued a non-bailable warrant against him for the 1975 massacre at Chirrudih.

During Soren’s second stint in the Union Cabinet a Delhi Court convicted him for the murder of his private secretary and had to resign again. Asked whether JMM would continue to support the UPA government, Soren, who had high hopes of being re-inducted into the Union Ministry, said his party would still support the Congress-led coalition at the Centre. — PTI