Anil was the SO when the police registered a case of accidental death, though Ram Pragat’s body was found five km away from the spot of the presumed accident. Rajesh was one of the persons with whom Ram Pragat was last seen. The others were Gauri Shanker, who, too, has been named in the murder case, and Ram Badan, the driver, who was named in the case of accidental death. Gauri Shanker runs a school, set up by the minister’s family in the village.

Rajesh said, “I came to know about the accident only when the body of Ram Pragat was found.” He added that he knew Gauri Shanker because “he, too, visited the minister’s house”.

Rajesh’s uncle J P Singh dismissed the allegation that his nephew was instrumental in converting a case of murder into that of an accident. “It has been cooked up by Balwant Singh who says he last saw Ram Pragat with Rajesh. There is an old rivalry between Balwant and Rajesh over the election of gram pradhan”, he said.

The police on Friday recorded the statements of Balwant and another witness Parshuram, brother-in-law of Ram Pragat, who was in the village that day to attend a marriage in Balwant’s family. Parshuram said that on January 29, 2008 when they went to the police to lodge an FIR, the minister spoke to him on Gauri Shanker’s phone and asked him to sign on a blank paper. “The police forced my nephew Ghanshyam to put his signature on a blank paper,” he alleged.

However, Rajendra Singh, who is investigating the case now, said Parshuram had made no allegation against the minister in the statement he had recorded earlier in the day.

The DIG, however, said the police will not go by statements alone. The victim’s wife Subhawati’s lawyer Manoj Kumar said the postmortem report showed there were no injuries in the lower part of the body. “It gives scope to believe in the murder theory,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, Mahabir Prasad’s application for stay on his arrest is likely to be heard in the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday.