Indian minister linked to journalist's murder

The Indian government was scrambling to defend itself yesterday from accusations that a cabinet minister was involved in the unsolved murder of a journalist three years ago.

The journalist, Shivani Bhatnagar, was on maternity leave from the Indian Express when she was stabbed and strangled in her flat in Delhi in January 1999. Her infant son was with herat the time of the murder, but her husband, the legal correspondent of another prominent daily, The Times of India, was away at work. Despite Ms Bhatnagar's newspaper doggedly highlighting the hamfisted investigation into the case, the police appeared in no hurry. For a time, the husband was a suspect.

The murder was clearly the work of hired killers, but it did not appear linked to Ms Bhatnagar's investigative work, since she had been on long leave. The focus was on people Ms Bhatnagar knew well both at home and at work.

There were claims, denied by the police, that people in power were stalling the investigation. But Delhi recently got a new police commissioner, and suddenly the Bhatnagar murder case was a priority. Earlier this month two men were arrested, and the police are hunting three others, including a senior police officer from neighbouring Haryana state, who has been identified as the prime suspect.

Now the case has taken a sensational turn with the wife of the wanted police officer declaring on national television on Thursday night that the parliamentary affairs minister, Pramod Mahajan, a politician who is part of the inner circle of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, was responsible for Ms Bhatnagar's murder.

A visibly shaken Mr Mahajan described the charges as a "sad attempt by a woman to save her husband who has been refused bail by every court and is hiding from the police". He insists his relationship with Ms Bhatnagar was entirely professional, "no less, no more", and is said to be contemplating libel action.

The Congress party has demanded Mr Mahajan's resignation. However, the Deputy Prime Minister, Lal Krishna Advani, who is in charge of the Home Ministry, has described the allegations as "baseless" and part of a "malicious campaign to derail the murder probe".