Role of BSP MLA's wife being probed in engineer's murder

Lucknow, Jan 1 (IANS) The role of ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Shekhar Tiwari's wife in the murder of Uttar Pradesh governmenty engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta has been put under the scanner, the police said here Thursday.

'We have issued notice to Tiwari's wife asking her to cooperate in the investigation as we have reason to believe that she could provide valuable inputs about the killing,' state Additional Director General of Police (law and order) Brij Lal told reporters Thursday evening.

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Meanwhile, the police have recovered the blood-smeared baton that is suspected to have been used by the Tiwari to beat the public works department engineer to death in Auraiya on Dec 24 as well as an electric wire.

'The electric wire allegedly used by MLA Tiwari to give shocks to Gupta has also been recovered from the Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) guest house where Gupta was tortured before he succumbed to his injuries,' Lal said.

The sensational murder followed the engineer's refusal to shell out a hefty sum of Rs.5 million allegedly demanded by the MLA as 'contribution' for Chief Minister Mayawati's birthday bash Jan 15.

Three policemen, including the local police station house officer and the MLA's personal security men, have already been dismissed from service for alleged complicity in the killing. The district superintendent of police has also been placed under suspension for his 'dubious' role in the crime.