After he refused to respond to court warrants six times, a special court in Bhind, in the Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh, has issued an arrest warrant against minister of state for general administration Lal Singh Arya for his role in the murder of a Congress MLA in 2009.
A special judge in Bhind, Yogesh Kumar Gupta, issued the arrest warrant against the minister after he refused to accept warrants from the local police who tried to serve it to the minister. The minister did not present himself before the court even after a bailable warrant of Rs 25,000 was issued against him. The police told the court that minister refused to accept the warrant even as he was served it six times earlier.
A court warrant was issued against Arya in May this year for the first time when a special plea of the family of the victim was entertained. Hearing the plea, the court ordered to include the name of the minister as one of the accused under Section 302 of the IPC. The case was reopened after a previous accused was found murdered two years back after spending three years in jail.
Arya, who is the MLA from Gohad Assembly constituency, lost to Makhanlal Jatav of the Congress in the 2008 December polls. In April 2009, Jatav was killed while he was canvassing for a Congress candidate in the Lok Sabha polls. Later in a bypoll, Ranveer Jatav, son of Makhanlal, was elected. In 2013, Arya won from the Gohad Assembly seat by defeating Ranveer.
Earlier, the police had arrested 13 people including a senior advocate in Bhind, Tejnarayan Shukla. Shukla was also president of the district bar association. As an accused in the case, he had spent 39 months in jail. He was released two years back but was found murdered at his farmhouse. Jatav's family had filed a review petition under Section 319 of the CrPC.
Special judge Gupta on Wednesday ordered the inclusion of Arya as an accused under Section 302 of the IPC. Congress leader and former minister Govind Singh, who is the MLA from Lahar in Bhind district, asked the chief minister to drop Arya from the state cabinet. State Congress president Arun Yadav too demanded Arya's resignation.
Leader of opposition Ajay Singh asked the chief minister to drop the accused minister from the cabinet owing to moral responsibility. He said the people sitting in high offices should set an example. He reminded the BJP that Uma Bharati resigned under similar circumstances when a court in Hubli, Karnataka, issued a arrest warrant against her.
