Two more FIRs against Kanpur journalist held for ‘land-grab’ bid

One of the fresh FIRs against Dixit was filed for allegedly threatening and attempting to extort money from a lawyer and RTI activist who was pursuing a case against the accused in the killing of eight policemen at Bikru village of the district in July 2020.

The second case involves allegations of land-grabbing and attempting to extort money from a Dalit man. They were filed at the Nazirabad and Chakeri police stations.

The FIR at the Nazirabad police station was filed by Saurabh Bhadouria, the RTI activist and lawyer, saying he was pursuing the Bikru case and was made a witness by the special investigation team (SIT) formed by the government to probe the matter.

Eight policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), were killed when a police team went to Bikru to arrest gangster Vikas Dubey.

Bhadouria claimed that since he was pursuing the Bikru case, Vikas Dubey’s associates, including Jaikant Bajpai and his brothers, nursed a grudge against him. Jaikant’s three brothers — Rajaykant Bajpai, Shobhit Bajpai and Ajay Kant Bajpai — were among those jailed in the case.

The complainant alleged that after getting bail, Jaikant’s brothers along with others, including Avaneesh Dixit, started harassing and pressuring him to stop pursuing the case.
Jaikant is still lodged in jail.

The lawyer alleged that the accused even intercepted and threatened him when he was passing through a crossing on August 3 last year.

Bhadouria further claimed that Avaneesh and his associate Vipin Gupta threatened to kill him if he did not arrange Rs 20 lakh and took Rs 35,000 which he was carrying at the time. The accused also circulated false stories about him to deter him from pursuing the case, he said.

The case on Bhadouria’s complaint was filed against Avaneesh and 17 other people by name, and six unidentified persons on charges of rioting, wrongful restraint, and extortion etc.

The other case was lodged by Rajesh Kumar, the Dalit man, against Avaneesh and five others by name and 12 unidentified persons over an alleged attempt to grab the complainant’s land using fake documents as well as a bid to extort Rs 10 lakh from him by issuing threats.

Rajesh alleged that on June 25 this year, the accused forcibly entered his house in Sujanpur and claimed ownership of the land. They demanded that he vacate the property or face consequences.

The case was filed on charges of rioting, extortion, criminal intimidation, forgery, etc.

Avaneesh Dixit’s lawyer Shiva Kant Dixit said they have filed a bail application in the matter and the petition is yet to be taken up by court.

Avaneesh’s wife Pratima Dixit said, “The police have no evidence to prove their case against my husband. It appears that the charges have been filed due to personal enmity.”

“I have faith in the judiciary and hope to get justice. “We have been facing harassment for the last five days. I request Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to get a fair inquiry conducted as the police are filing one case after another,” said Pratima Dixit.