UP minister calls a 'dead' witness

Ministers in UP appear to have a great liking for ‘immovable properties’ and they have been virtually competing with one another in grabbing land, and in the process making use of ‘innovative ideas’ and ‘coercive tactics’ to scare away the real owners with, of course, the connivance of the police.

UP minister for culture Subhash Pandey wanted to ‘expand’ his house in Jaunpur district by constructing additional rooms, but the neighbour’s house came in the way.

According to a complaint sent to the UP Lokayukta, the minister wanted his neighbour Shabban Begum’s house ‘under any circumstances’ and had reportedly asked her to quote ‘any price’ for her house, but the old lady had refused his offer.  Irked over her refusal and in a bid to ‘scare’ her, the minister allegedly got a case under the SC/ST Act registered against Shabban Begum’s two sons- Parvez and Javed- charging the duo with committing atrocities on a dalit. Pandey also got one Dwarkadheesh Kesarwani listed as a witness in the matter, although he had died about ten years back. The complainant alleged that the local police actively connived with the minister in the building up a fake case against the two brothers. Pandey has also been accused of grabbing land of graveyard at Kamalapur village in the district besides ‘usurping’ the huge properties of a historical Hindu temple by getting their ownership transferred in a fictitious name. The minister has also, according to the complaint, grabbed the lands of the dalits, which had been allotted to them by the government.

The state Lokayukta office has admitted that it had received such a complaint against the minister and the same was being investigated. Pandey was the fourth UP minister, who has been accused of grabbing land.  Earlier, sacked minister for religious affairs Rajesh Tripathi had also been charged with  grabbing huge tract of government land in Gorakhpur district and converting it into a crematorium and levying  charges on those cremating the bodies of their near and dear ones.