PWD engineer's body bore 32 torture marks

Marks of torture and electric shock have been found on the body of an Uttar Pradesh engineer who was allegedly lynched by a ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator for refusing to pay for Chief Minister Mayawati's birthday celebrations, according to the autopsy report, officials said on Thursday.

Slain Public Works Department (PWD) engineer MK Gupta's body bore 32 injury marks, while one hand was fractured. He had been given electric shocks, and his hair had been pulled out in clumps, the report revealed.

BSP legislator Shekhar Tiwari, who has been arrested for the murder, was presented at a court in Auriya district at noon Thursday.

Activists of the Opposition Samajwadi Party, which has called for a state wide shutdown on Thursday to protest the killing, were stopping trains at many places in the state. State government engineers have also called for a shutdown to protest the killing.

Tiwari was arrested Wednesday from Rania town in Kanpur (rural) district.

The state administration has said the incident had no connection with Mayawati.

The police are on the lookout for two more suspects named in the FIR (first information report) filed by the victim's wife Shashi Gupta.

The state police chief sought to term the incident as a "fallout of kickbacks in contracts in the PWD".

Tiwari and his musclemen had allegedly barged into Gupta's house around 2 am on Wednesday, locked up his wife in the bathroom and thrashed the engineer after stripping him.

Around 5 am, Tiwari carried a severely injured Gupta to the nearest police station and told the police to register a case against the engineer for "indulging in hooliganism".

The police, however, took him to hospital around 7 am where he was declared dead.

According to the victim's cousin Sharad Gupta, the engineer was under pressure to shell out a hefty amount for Mayawati's birthday celebrations.

"On earlier occasions too, Tiwari visited his house a number of times, demanding money. But my (cousin) brother expressed inability to give the money and his refusal led to this incident," Sharad Gupta told reporters.

He also said, "My cousin had apprised PWD Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui about Shekhar Tiwari's oft-repeated demand for money, but nothing concrete was done to restrain the MLA."

Every year on January 15, the BSP supremo holds a big birthday bash and party leaders at various levels are reportedly directed to make their assigned contributions, a practice that Mayawati has openly admitted in the past.