NEW DELHI: India's top criminal investigating agency on Thursday arrested an opposition legislator for the cold blooded murder of a local liquor smuggler, which was later masqueraded as a police encounter killing. Five time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Rajasthan, in Western India Rajendra Rathore was arrested in Jaipur on Friday, even as party supporters laid siege to the local office of the federal investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) where the legislator was kept in custody. CBI officials have claimed that the smuggler Dara Singh was picked from the Jaipur airport in 2006, kept hostage and later killed by policemen who were loyal to Rathore. The cold blooded killing was later staged as a police encounter, where police officials claimed that the smuggler was killed “in action”. “The circumstantial evidence shows clearly that Dara was murdered in cold blood by special operations group (SOG) personnel… Rathore was on telephonic touch with Jain, ADGP (during the entire period),” a charge sheet filed by the agency said. Rathore however told his supporters and media persons before arrest that he was innocent. “I did not know the dead person. Where is the question of my killing him. This is only the CBI being misused by the Congress to pressurize the opposition,” said Rathore, a former minister in the Rajasthan government.
