Controversial independent legislator Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya Friday returned as a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government  seven months after he was forced to resign over his alleged role in the murder of a senior police officer in his home district of Pratapgarh.

The Kunda MLA was sworn in at the Raj Bhawan by Governor B L Joshi in the presence of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and cabinet ministers Azam Khan and Shivpal Yadav.

Raja Bhaiyya, who had held food and civil supplies portfolio in the Akhilesh Yadav government, would be allocated a ministry later.

He was named in an FIR lodged by Parveen Azad, the widow of DSP Ziaul Haq who was killed alongwith two others at Balipur village in Kunda, on March 2.

However, the CBI, which investigated the case, gave a clean chit to him in its closure report, against which Azad has moved an application.

After being sworn in, Raja Bhaiyya said he was implicated in the DSP Haq's murder case. "Fake charges were framed. During the CBI inquiry, I myself sought a polygraphic test. Now, I have been acquitted of all the charges. It is the kripa of Netaji (Mulayam Singh) and the Chief Minister that I have again become a minister," he said.

Alleging the media of being partisan, he said, "Some (TV news) channels painted a wrong picture. There was a conspiracy against me in which some 'outsiders' in the SP were involved. (However) I will not take any names," he said.

Asked whether those"outsiders" belonged to the Congress, he said: "There are people who have nuisance value and media also gives importance to them." The Kunda MLA does not share a good equation with Congress MLA Pramod Tiwari, also from Pratapgarh.

Asked about eight criminal cases pending against him, he said they are "prasad" offered to him by the Mayawati government.

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