BHOPAL: A local court in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh issued on Tuesday an arrest warrant against MP Minister of State for General Administration Lal Singh Arya in connection with the 2009 murder of sitting Congress MLA from Gohad seat Makhanlal Jatav.
Before the special judge (SC/ST Atrocities Act) YK Gupta issued the arrest warrant, the district police informed the court about not being able to execute the earlier bailable warrant of Rs 25,000 issued by the same court.
This the sixth time over last few months that the court has issued an arrest warrant against the minister, but the minister has neither appeared before the court nor the police has been able to execute the warrant against him.
Prompted by the development, the leader of opposition in MP Assembly and senior Congress leader Ajay Singh ‘Rahul’ urged the state’s governor OP Kohli and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to get the minister’s resignation from the council of ministers. Singh also said that the CM should direct the minister to appear before the court, which has issued multiple arrest warrants against Arya.
The sitting Congress MLA from Gohad seat of Bhind district, Makhanlal Jatav was shot dead while campaigning for the party candidate during the Lok Sabha polls on April 13, 2009 in Bhind district. Based on complaint by the security guard of the slain MLA, a case of murder was lodged against Narayan Sharma, Sher Singh, Mevaram, Sethi Kaurav, Gandharva Singh, Kedar Singh, Tejnarayan Sharma (who is dead now) and Ramrup Singh Gurjar.
However, during the course of trial later in the murder case, the deceased Congress legislator’s son Ranveer Jatav and another key witness in the case stated before the court that it was on behest of Arya (now the BJP MLA from Gohad seat) that the then Congress MLA Makhanlal Jatav was shot dead on April 13, 2009.
Based on statements of the key witnesses, the special court in Bhind directed on August 24 that the MP minister Lal Singh Arya’s be named among the accused.
The minister tried to get relief from the MP High Court and the Supreme Court against the lower court order in the case, but both the courts turned down the minister’s plea. His subsequent plea for anticipatory bail in the case too has been dismissed by the MP High Court.