The Uttar Pradesh police have finally declared the sensational murder of Jaunpur India Justice Party (IJP) candidate Bahadur Sonkar as "suicide".
The formal declaration came at a press conference specially convened late Monday evening by none other than state director general of police Vikram Singh.
"The preliminary investigation carried out by a special team headed by additional director general -CID Padman Singh, has found that prima facie the death of Bahadur Sonkar was a result of suicide", Singh told mediapersons.
He parried questions raised by journalists and literally dragged away the ADG (CID) too in an obvious bid to avoid answering pointed queries.
The move was clearly seen as the state administration's desperation to save the skin of ruling party nominee Dhananjay Singh , who is the key accused in the murder.
A don-turned-politician and now Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader, Dhananjay Singh has been pointedly accused by the victim's family members as the key man behind the murder.
Sonkar's body was found hanging from a Babool tree , at least 15 feet high , days after he refused to withdraw his nomination for which he was being pressurized by a local deputy superintendent of police, known for his proximity to the ruling party nominee.
Sonkar's complaints to local authorities were allegedly ignored by the local administration.
Meanwhile, taking cognizance of the complaints, the Election Commission had sent a special two member team of non-UP cadre IAS officers to carry out a separate preliminary inquiry into the incident. Their report was yet to be made public.