BSP MP in the dock: Before help’s death,fights in school and many murder cases

“He has been working hard to shed the Bahubali tag,” says Ashok Singh. “Saansadji has faced problems earlier and,as always,he will come out stronger.”

The problems had begun at school. Son of a bank employee then based in Kolkata,Dhananjay fought with his teachers and had to move to his ancestral home in Uttar Pradesh. During his class XII exams,he was jailed for a communal clash. At Sikrara police station alone,history sheet number 12 A lists 11 cases against him in 1998.

Among the murders he is accused in is that of a physical trainer at Lucknow’s La Martiniere College in 1997. Following the murder of a PWD engineer in Lucknow,a reward of Rs 50,000 was announced on his head. “Police then claimed to have killed him in an encounter,but it was someone else,” says his father,Rajdeo Singh. When UP director general (health) Dr Bachchi Lal was shot dead in 2001,Dhananjay was arrested after the alleged contract killer identified him as the conspirator,but was later acquitted. In 2011,he was arrested over the murders of a contractor and a tea stall owner,and later got bail.

In between,his first wife,Meenakshi,was found dead in 2007; police declared it suicide. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections,a rival candidate was found murdered and his family blamed Dhananjay,but police dismissed the charge.

Dhananjay had plunged into politics in 2002 when,as an independent,he won Jaunpur’s Rari assembly constituency. He unsuccessfully contested the 2004 Lok Sabha election from Jaunpur on an LJP ticket. He retained Rari in 2007,this time as a JD(U) nominee. A doctor based in Sikrara said the victories are the outcome of his constant contact with people and his image of a muscleman.

Before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections,he got in touch with Mayawati and joined the BSP. After he won Jaunpur defeating the sitting SP MP,Dhananjay’s father won the consequent assembly bypoll.

When he was arrested in 2011 for the twin murders,the BSP suspended him. Jagriti contested the 2012 assembly elections as an independent,and lost. Later,Mayawati patched up with Dhananjay. The BSP has not yet reacted to his latest arrest.

Dhananjay had married Jagriti days after becoming an MP. Jagriti,daughter of a project director (now deceased) at Jaunpur’s district rural development agency,is a dentist from Santosh Medical College in Ghaziabad. The couple have a two-year old son.

Dhananjay’s father,sitting at his house in his village Bansafa,calls Jagriti “cruel”,says many helps have left because of this,and adds his son had filed a petition for divorce in a Delhi court in May.