Maharaj knows how it works, say UP policemen about the criminal-politician nexus

“Maharaj Ji knows how it works,” said a policeman this week. Explaining how the gangsters flourished by cornering government contracts, he accepted their nexus with politicians and police. The chief minister

Yogi Adityanath, who is known as Maharaj Ji, would be well aware of the system, he suggested because he has been an MP for five terms before becoming the CM in 2017.

Stunned by the Vikas Dubey gang gunning down eight policemen in Kanpur, the CM this week asked for a list of gangsters. And the police produced it in double quick time. Most of them enjoy political patronage.

Vikas Dubey too had been picked up by UP Police in 2017 but was let off with a warning. While political connections came to his rescueit is believed, but UP police sources also claim he was to be eliminated in a fake encounter. But his wife released CCTV footage showing the police taking him away and hence the operation was abandoned.

On local TV channels, he had claimed then that he was not a criminal but a politician. Wanted in 60 cases involving serious crime, his name did not figure in the list of ‘Top 10’ criminals in Kanpur. Thrice booked under the Goonda Act, each time he managed to get out of the hook.

His claim to notoriety was the killing of Santosh Shukla in 2001 inside a police station. And although 25 policemen were present in the PS at the time, they all turned hostile and the case fell through. “Even the Investigating Officer turned hostile,” reflects the deceased’s brother Manoj Shukla wryly.

Pandit Ji, as Dubey liked to be called, was a terror in the area and had cemented his reputation by slapping the local SHO in public. Even after his house was demolished after the encounter, police sources say, villagers are still unwilling to speak up.

BJP Government in the state claims to have conducted 5,178 encounters in the last three years, killing 103 criminals and injuring 1,859 more. Criminals were writing to him, the CM boasted, seeking a chance to surrender. The Government claims 17,745 criminals surrendered during this period. But the boast of the Maharaj Jihas been called by the long list of ganglords prepared by the Special Task Force (STF) following the Kanpur encounter. A dozen ganglordsare in jail but continue to head crime syndicates, the list says.

It includes the names of Mukhtar Ansari lodged in a Jail in Punjab, Umesh Rai aka Gaura Rai lodged in Central jail in Rampur, Tribhuwan Singh lodged in Central jail in Mirzapur, Atiq Ahmed lodged in Sabarmati jail in Gujarat, Khan Mubarak lodged in Lucknow jail, Mohammed Saleem lodged in Central jail in Fatehgarh, Mohammed Rustam lodged in Kanpur jail, Babloo Srivastavalodged in Bareilly Central jail, Brijesh Kumar Singh lodgedinVaranasiCentraljail,SubhashSinghThakur lodgedinFatehgarh Central jail, Dhruv Kumar Singh lodged in Ballia jail, Munirlodged in Mandoli Jail in New Delhi among others.

Others whose names figure are Lallu Yadav, Ajay Singh aka Ajay Sipahi, Ramesh Singh Kaka and MLC Sanjeev Dwivedi, who are out on bail.

The STF list also mentions Mulayam Yadav, Rajesh Yadav, Bachcha Pasi, Dileep Mishra, Sanjeev Maheshwari, Sunder Bhati, Anil Dujana, Anil Bhati, Susheel, Ankit Gujjar, Amit Kasana, Akash Jat, Udham Singh, Yogesh Bhadauria and Ajeet.

Clearly, Goonda raj has continued to flourish in the state. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures for 2018, released at the beginning of this year, UP tops the table in crimes against women while offences against children, particularly girls, and the elderly have grown.