MAKHACHKALA, March 25 (RIA Novosti) – A police chief in the capital of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan has been suspended over alleged involvement in the killing of a local lawmaker, the Interior Ministry said Monday.
A Dagestan Interior Ministry spokesman said suspicions over Makhachkala police chief Raip Ashikov have arisen during a number of criminal investigations.
A police source told RIA Novosti that Ashikov was detained “on suspicion of a contract killing” in May 2011 of Magomedgadzhi Aliyev, a member of the Kaspiysk town assembly and head of the Gorvodokanal municipal water supply company.
Police last week conducted searches of Ashikov’s house and car and recorded his phone calls, the source told RIA Novosti.