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Journalism of Courage
Under the two governments of Yogi Adityanath between 2017 and now, 21 legislators elected on the Samajwadi Party ticket, to either the Assembly or the Lok Sabha, have been implicated in criminal cases across the state.
Of these 21, 12 are sitting MLAs and two sitting MPs of the SP. Three have lost their Assembly membership after the filing of the cases, while another three lost the 2022 Assembly polls after cases were lodged against them.
The charges range from serious offences such as rape and land grabbing, to abetment of suicide, promoting enmity between groups, and making abusive remarks.
The SP has emerged as the main opponent of the ruling BJP in UP after the 2022 Assembly and the recent Lok Sabha elections. While it went up from 47 MLAs in 2017 to 111 in the 2022 Assembly elections, in the Lok Sabha polls, it got 37 seats, finishing ahead of the BJP’s 33, ending the latter’s dominance in UP starting the 2014 general elections.
Two SP MLAs who have had cases filed against them, Rakesh Pratap Singh and Abhay Singh, are believed to have cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha elections held in February this year, helping the BJP win. The SP has not taken any action against them.
Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari, Bhadohi MLA Zahid Beg and Amroha MLA Mehboob Ali are the most recent SP elected leaders to have been booked. Beg is under arrest, along with another SP MLA Ramakant Yadav. Four SP ex-MLAs – Azam Khan, his son Abdullah, Irfan Solanki and Rameshwar Singh Yadav – are also in jail.
In 2021, a case was filed under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act against Hasan, who was at the time the Kairana MLA.
In January 2022, soon after he had submitted his nomination papers ahead of the coming Assembly elections, Hasan was arrested. He contested for the Kairana seat from jail and won.
Released on bail after about a year, Hasan says: “Twenty-two cases have been lodged against me, and most of them, including that of Gangsters’ Act, are still pending in court.”
Nahid’s sister Iqra, who campaigned on his behalf in the Assembly elections, won in the recent Lok Sabha polls from Kairana. Their late father was a former SP legislator.
In May this year, while campaigning in the Budaun Lok Sabha seat for his son, Shivpal, the SP national general secretary and Jaswantnagar MLA, was accused of making derogatory remarks against BSP chief Mayawati. He was booked on charges of intentional insult and making statements that could encourage enmity or ill-will between communities.
Station House Officer (SHO) of Civil Lines Police Station in Budaun Sanjay Kumar Singh confirmed that the investigation in the case was ongoing.
In the recent Lok Sabha elections, Shivpal’s son Aditya Yadav won from Badaun.
Prabhu Narayan was booked along with party workers in December 2021 in Chandauli for allegedly attacking a police team and getting into a scuffle when stopped from proceeding to the venue of a rally by CM Adityanath. A video of the incident went viral, and police lodged a case three days later.
Then, in May last year, a Chandauli court sentenced Prabhu Narayan and his brother Anil Yadav to three months’ imprisonment for wrongful restraint and use of criminal force in a case dating back to the 2015 panchayat elections. The MLA is out now.
During the Covid-19 lockdown in 2021, Paras, who was then too the MLA from Nagina, was booked along with others for allegedly organising a Roza Iftar in Saraimeer locality of Bijnor.
The Bijnor police lodged a case against Paras and others for alleged violation of lockdown regulations. Paras told The Indian Express that a court in Bijnor had acquitted him. He went on to win the 2022 Assembly elections from Nagina.
A case of promoting enmity between two groups and criminal intimidation was lodged against Ansari, after he allegedly made objectionable comments against CM Adityanath during a function in April 2022.
A few days after the FIR, the Bareilly Development Authority demolished a petrol pump owned by the MLA, claiming it was constructed without approval of the structural map.
Ansari told The Indian Express that the investigation into the case is ongoing.
In June 2022, the Pratapgarh police booked Verma, along with others, on charges of using criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty, among other offences. They were accused of creating a “false video” to claim corruption in an under-construction government building. In the video, Verma is seen pushing against the wall with his hand, and it collapses.
Verma and his associates were also accused of threatening the labourers and staff of the construction agency at the site.
A chargesheet has been filed in the case, Verma told The Indian Express, adding that police had later filed two more cases against him, including one under the SC/ST Act, and investigation in the same was on.
During campaigning for the 2022 Assembly elections, a case was filed after Abhay and his supporters clashed with followers of BJP candidate Aarti Tiwari, including at the Maharajganj Police Station, using stones and allegedly opening fire at each other. Aarti Tiwari is the wife of former MLA Indra Pratap Tiwari, alias Khaboo Tiwari.
SHO, Maharajganj Police Station, Amarjeet Singh said a chargesheet had been filed in the case. Aarti is not named in the chargesheet.
Abhay was among the SP MLAs who is believed to have cross-voted during the Rajya Sabha elections in February this year in favour of the BJP.
Rameshwar was arrested by the Etah police in 2022 under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act over several charges, including land grabbing.
While in jail, he was booked, along with three of his family members, including his younger brother Jogendra, for allegedly sexually harassing a 48-year-old married woman on the pretext of helping her find a job. While the alleged incident occurred in 2011, a police case was registered only in February last year in Etah.
A senior police officer, requesting anonymity, said investigation into all the cases against Rameshwar has been completed and a report filed. The state government has also seized his properties under the UP Gangsters Act.
In 2022, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle Ram Gopal Yadav was reported to have handed over a letter to Adityanath saying the Etah district administration was “harassing” Rameshwar, Jogendra and their family members. Adityanath was urged to order a CBI or an SIT probe into the “false cases” lodged against the family. Later, the SP denied this, saying Ram Gopal Yadav had met the CM to discuss the plight of backward communities and Muslims.
Rameshwar contested and lost the 2022 Assembly elections from Aliganj in Etah to the BJP’s Satyapal Singh Rathore.
Yogesh was booked along with others for allegedly assaulting and gangraping a 45-year-old married woman in February 2022, after forcibly entering her house and beating up her family members. The woman alleged that the accused threatened her with dire consequences if she voted in favour of the BJP, and that they also damaged household items before leaving.
The woman later retracted her allegations, and the police expunged the names of Yogesh Pratap and his family members, including his son, from the case.
Yogesh told The Indian Express that the case was filed just a day before polling for the Assembly elections, and was meant to hurt his campaign. “Three persons have been chargesheeted on charges of criminal intimidation and other offences,” he said. They are all local residents, he said.
In the Assembly elections that followed, Yogesh lost to the BJP’s Ajay from Colonelganj in Gonda.
She was booked along with 200 unidentified party workers in March 2022, with the police claiming that “objectionable slogans” had been raised by her supporters while celebrating her win in the Assembly elections, at the SP office in Domariyaganj in Siddharth Nagar. A video shared on social media purportedly showed slogans hailing Pakistan.
Khatoon told The Indian Express that the case had been closed since, with no evidence found against her or the others. SHO, Domariyaganj Police Station, Ramesh Kumar confirmed this.
Rakesh Pratap and his supporters were booked for allegedly assaulting the husband of Rashmi Singh, a BJP candidate for the post of Nagar Palika chairman a day before the urban local body elections in May 2023, inside the Gauriganj Police Station in Amethi. They were holding a protest seeking an FIR over the alleged assault on them by Rashmi’s husband Deepak Singh and his men.
Rakesh Pratap said the investigation was ongoing and no arrests had been made so far.
Around two weeks ago, Beg was booked along with his wife on charges of abetting suicide and child trafficking, and for violating the Juvenile Justice Act and Bonded Labour Act after a 17-year-old girl was found hanging in a storeroom at his house in Bhadohi. Police later also booked their son Zaim, who is now in jail along with Beg. The MLA’s wife is said to be “missing”.
Another case has been filed against Beg since then, of allegedly attacking a sub-inspector who attempted to arrest him.
Additional Superintendent of Police Tejveer Singh said investigation is on.
The 10-time MLA, former MP and ex-minister is currently lodged in Sitapur District Jail. Since Adityanath became CM, 81 cases have been registered against him, the charges ranging from land grabbing to cheating and criminal trespass. In several cases, his wife Tanzeen Fatima and son Abdullah are co-accused.
Khan has been convicted in six cases to date. In October 2022, Azam Khan lost his Rampur Sadar seat after he was convicted and sentenced to three years for a 2019 hate speech case.
In the bypoll to the seat held subsequently in December 2022, the BJP had wrested the Azam Khan bastion.
Azam’s lawyer Nasir Sultan said he had been acquitted in five cases, while trial in some cases is pending.
In February 2023, a Moradabad court sentenced Abdullah and his father Azam Khan in a 2008 case against them for allegedly blocking traffic with their vehicle in protest against police checking in Moradabad. Following this, Abdullah was disqualified as an MLA.
In October 2023, Abdullah along with Azam and his mother Tanzeen Fatima was sentenced to seven years in connection with alleged forgery of his birth certificate. The case had been filed in January 2019 by then local BJP leader and now BJP Rampur MLA Akash Saxena.
The SP leader is accused of making threats on the phone to kill his own party’s constituency in-charge for Kerakat in Jaunpur, Vivek Kumar Yadav.
A senior police officer said Saroj has also lodged an FIR against Vivek Kumar, and that investigations in both cases were ongoing.
Deep Narayan, who had lost the Assembly elections of February-March 2022 to a BJP candidate, was arrested in September that year for allegedly conspiring to free a criminal from police custody. While Deep Narayan was in Jhansi jail, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav met him.
Deep Narayan has claimed that in the same incident, police had filed three separate cases and named him an accused in each. Chargesheets had been filed in all the cases, he said, adding that police had also attached his properties, including his house, under the UP Gangsters Act.
In the 2022 Assembly elections, Solanki won from Sishamau in Kanpur district for the fourth time. In June this year, he lost his Assembly membership after a local court convicted him, his younger brother Rizwan, and three others to seven years for allegedly harassing a woman and setting her house on fire in an attempt to seize her land in the Jajmau area of Kanpur.
Irfan’s lawyer Saeed Naqvi said an appeal has been filed against the order. He added that trials in other cases against Solanki, including those under the UP Gangsters Act and related to forgery, were pending.
He was booked for making “verbally abusive” remarks against BJP leader Chhatrapal Gangwar and his nephew during a public meeting in April 2022, months after he had won the Assembly elections from Baheri in Bareilly.
Police said the complainant, Jitendra, alleged that the MLA had referred to Gangwar and his nephew as “robbers”, and accused them of extorting money from businessmen and engaging in land-grabbing.
The SHO of Bareilly’s Kotwali Police Station, Dinesh Kumar Sharma, said the investigation was ongoing.
Barq was booked in April this year for allegedly making objectionable comments during his Lok Sabha campaign and for dubbing the killings of gangster-turned-politicians Mohammad Shahabuddin, Mukhtar Ansari, and Atiq Ahmed as “sacrifice”. Barq, the grandson of former MP Shafiqur Rehman Barq (now deceased), was accused of saying this at Chaman Sarai locality of Sambhal.
Police said Barq also referred to “heinous criminals from a particular caste as heroes” and presented them in a manner that could potentially disrupt public peace.
SHO, Kotwali Police Station, Anuj Tomar, said the investigation was pending.
He was booked earlier this week for allegedly advocating the legalization of ganja (cannabis), a demand raised by other politicians earlier. Ansari, the brother of the late Mukhtar Ansari, said that lakhs of people openly consume ganja, which is also often used at large religious gatherings and considered a sacred herb.
Circle Officer of Ghazipur Sudhakar Pandey stated that they would conduct an inquiry, including into Ansari’s purported statement.
He was booked this week for his “inflammatory and controversial remarks” during a public function. During his address, Ali purportedly said that “the population of Muslims is on the rise and thus, BJP rule would end soon”.
The police lodged a case against Ali as well as the SP’s Bijnor unit chief, Zakir Hussain, over the former’s “provocative” speech. “The Mughals had ruled the country for 800 years. If even their rule can come to an end, how long will you (BJP) survive? Tum zaroor jaoge, hum aayega (You will definitely go, we will come(to power),” Ali purportedly told a gathering during a function to mark the ‘Samvidhan Maan Diwas’ observed by the SP across the state.
