Voicing 'extreme disquiet' over 'close nexus' between police and 'criminalised politicians and their goons', the Allahabad High Court has rejected petitions of the wife of BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari and two others seeking a stay on their arrests in connection with the murder of a PWD engineer.

Rejecting the petitions on Tuesday, a division bench comprising Justice Amar Saran and Justice RN Misra observed that "at this stage the court cannot reach an inference that there is no prima facie material against the accused so as to justify quashing the FIR or the investigation or to stay the arrests of the petitioners".