Sanjeev Maheshwari Jeeva killed: ‘Notorious’ gang leader whose tryst with crime began three decades ago

Jailed gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s associate Sanjeev Maheshwari belongs to a business family with roots in Shamli’s Adampur village. His father, Om Prakash Maheshwari, who was a businessman and also involved in farming, died around eight years ago. Sanjeev has two sisters and a brother, who works in New Delhi.

Sanjeev’s first brush with crime was in 1991 when he was booked for allegedly assaulting a neighbour and threatening him. In four years since his first case, he was accused in five more cases including murder, robbery and also under the UP Gangsters Act.

Police with the man who opened fire at gangster Sanjeev Jeeva on Lucknow court premises on Wednesday.

According to the Shamli police, some of Sanjeev’s neighbours in Adampur village claim that he was involved in criminal activities “from an early age.”

In 1997, he was booked in the murder of senior BJP leader and MLA Brahm Dutt Dwivedi that took place in Farrukhabad.  Assailants attacked and killed Dwivedi when he was sitting inside his car after attending a tilak ceremony in Kotwali area of Farukhabad on February 10, 1997. Dwivedi’s gunner B K Tiwari was also killed in the attack, while the car driver, Rinku, was injured.

An FIR was registered against former MLA Vijay Singh and three unidentified persons at the city Kotwali police station. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which investigated the case, filed chargesheet against Vijay Singh and Sanjeev Maheshwari. On July 17, 2003, the CBI court in Lucknow sentenced Vijay and Sanjeev to life imprisonment in the case. In 2017, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court rejected appeals filed by Sanjeev and Vijay Singh against the trial court judgment.

As per UP Police records, as many as 24 cases, including seven under murder charges were lodged against Sanjeev.

Commotion inside Lucknow Civil Court after the incident. (ANI)

The cases are registered in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Ghazipur, Farukkhabad and Haridwar in Uttarakhand, said Special Director General of Police, law and order, Prashant Kumar. Police said, his area of operations was also spread to neighbouring districts of Lucknow. The cases against him are of serious nature including murder, kidnapping, extortion and others. Among the total cases, he has been acquitted in 17 and in one case police have filed a closure report.

In 2022, the Muzaffarnagar police lodged a case of forgery against Sanjeev Maheshari and this year (2023) a case of Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act was lodged against him. Police said, in the forgery case of 2022, Sanjeev was booked along with his wife Payal Maheshari, who had contested the 2017 Assembly election from Muzaffarnagar on an RLD ticket and lost. Sanjeev Maheshwari is survived by his wife and four children: Three sons and a daughter.

Under Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, UP police claim to have seized Sanjeev’s properties worth Rs four crores.  In April last year, Shamli police attached 21 bighas of “illegal” farmland belonging to Sanjeev, his wife and their two children in Adampur village of Shamli.

It is alleged that Sanjeev was operating his gang operations from inside jail. He was booked in around 10 cases while he had been lodged in jail. In many cases, he has been acquitted.

Sanjeev Maheshwari came under the scanner again in 2005 when BJP MLA Krishna Nand Rai was killed in Ghazipur area. Sanjeev was booked in the case along with Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari in the case. In 2019, a Delhi court that was hearing the trial, acquitted all accused as all eyewitnesses and material witnesses turned hostile.