More names pop up in Durga suspension case

Lucknow, Aug 7: The Durga Shakti Nagpal case is taking interesting turns every day. From the SP's (the ruling party) alleged involvement in the case to the District Magistrate's demand for suspension for clearing her name from communal tension. The deeper we go, the better we get to know the close link of the political parties with the mafias here.

The Durga suspension case and the sand mafia heist has forced us to think whether we are really in safe hands. Whether the ministers we have elected for ourselves are the one that can be looked up to?

Even as the Akhilesh Government insists on its 'anti-duty' motive behind the hasty suspension of the IAS officer, we beg to defer. More so, because the FIR documents obtained by the NDTV team speak of a deeper and darker conspiracy between the SP party honchoes and the sand mafia.

Readers would not be surprised if we say that another name-Omendra Khari-has popped up in the case. A close aid to the Samajwadi party leader Narendra Bhati (who made the proud declaration of his hand in suspending the IAS officer in 41 minutes), Khari was a participant in the auction of the confiscated sand from the illegal mining.

Held in the first week of July, under the supervision of Durga, Khari won the auction at Rs 8 crore. However, he failed to pay up the mandatory deposit of Rs 2 crore (one-fourth of the auction amount) by evening.

This was followed by a request from Durga to the mining department to file an FIR. This was finally done on July 11, where Khari was accused of cheating. The police even went to is village to question him, but he was absconding.

It must be political intervention that saved him. After being on the run for almost 2 weeks, Khari got a stay order from the Allahabad High Court on July 25 and 3 days later Nagpal was suspended on false allegations.

With the Akhilesh government adamant on its decision, despite pressure from the Waqf, the judiciary, the centre and the people, it is clear that we have been making mistakes in choosing the people who are expected to lead us. And perhaps, this would continue unless we rise against it ourselves.