Nishad Party leader's suicide: Congress seeks probe against minister Sanjay Nishad, his resignation

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Congress on Tuesday wrote to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding a judicial inquiry into allegations against state minister Sanjay Nishad in connection with the alleged suicide by his party leader Dharmatma Nishad.

The Congress also demanded the minister's resignation, saying he has no moral right to continue in office till the completion of the inquiry.

In a letter to the chief minister, state Congress president and former minister Ajay Rai said that Dharmatma Nishad, who was a state secretary in the Nishad Party, reportedly took his own life after posting allegations against Sanjay Nishad on social media.

"This is an extremely tragic incident that demands an unbiased judicial probe," Rai stated in the letter.

He argued the allegations against the minister are not only political but also personal, warranting an immediate and thorough investigation. "Until the inquiry is completed, the accused minister has no moral right to continue in office," Rai added.

The Congress has also demanded financial assistance of Rs 1 crore for the family of the deceased leader and a government job for one of his dependents.

Rai urged the chief minister to take cognisance of the matter and direct an immediate judicial probe. He also called for the minister's resignation until the investigation concludes.

Dharmatma Nishad (29) allegedly committed suicide at his house in Narkatha village under Paniyara police station limits of Maharajganj district on Sunday, according to the police.

The deceased had recently made serious allegations against the Nishad Party chief and Uttar Pradesh minister Sanjay Nishad.

"I lost the battle of my life. This is my last message. Today after a lot of consideration, I have decided that this world is of no use to me. I tried to help as many people as I could within my capacity and many a times I even helped people going beyond my capacity.

"I made thousands of political and social enemies because of this. Yet I continued to raise the voice of the exploited, deprived and the weak people of the society," he wrote in a lengthy Facebook post (in Hindi) on Sunday morning.

"I had to face many false cases and go to jail many times. But these did not stop and continued to help people," he said.

Ending his letter, he wrote, "If I am leaving this world, the biggest reason for this is Dr Sanjay Kumar Nishad and his sons Praveen Kumar Nishad and (Engineer) Shravan Kumar Nishad and my wicked traitor friend Jai Prakash Nishad.

"I am saying again that if I wanted to kill, I could have killed these traitors anytime, but I did not want to become a murderer," he wrote. "If I have made any mistake with anyone knowingly or unknowingly in my social and political life, please forgive me and take care of my family. Forgive me mother, Anjali, Bhaiya, Didi," he said.

Superintendent of Police Somendra Meena had said the case was being investigated.

Reacting to the suicide case, Sanjay Nishad had said, "Dharmatma Nishad was an active worker of my party and I am shocked by the news of his suicide." "His death is deeply saddening and a personal loss for me. I always helped Dharmatma at every possible time, but during this an unfortunate and false comment has been made against me and my family members from the social media account of Dharmatma Nishad." "I am fully confident that Dharmatma Nishad can never do this. Through this post, an attempt has been made to tarnish my image, that of my family and the Nishad party. Hence, I demand an impartial probe into this matter so that truth emerges and it may be known why Dharmatma took such an extreme step, and who made this post (on social media) to tarnish the image," he said.

A case was registered under sections 123 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc. with intent to commit an offence) and 351(3) (criminal intimidation) of the BNS against a named accused, Jai Prakash Nishad, and three unknown persons at the Paniyara police station on Monday, police said.