If a dramatic past could win votes,it would be difficult to top Dhananjay Singh,the BSP candidate from Jaunpur. In a way,the history-sheeter literally came back from the dead. The saga began in 1998,when the police claimed they had killed Singh in an encounter. Four months later,he turned up alive and the dead man turned out to be a Samajwadi Party worker. Recently,a court issued non-bailable warrants (NBW) against 35 policemen for killing an innocent man in a fake encounter and then claiming him to be Dhananjay Singh. The court also ordered issuance of public proclamations against them, said Dinesh Nath Pandey,Additional Government District Counsel of Sant Ravidas Nagar. None of them has appeared in court so far. Since most of the policemen have retired,it is going to take time to locate them. The most senior among them is Deputy Superintendent of Police Akhilanand Misra. On October 17,1998,the Sant Ravidas Nagar police claimed to have shot four criminals,including Dhananjay Singh who carried a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head,in an encounter on Mirzapur-Bhadohi road. The policemen were felicitated by the then district police chief for their work. Later in the evening,Phool Chand Yadav,a CPI(M) worker of Bhadohi,got to know that among those killed was his nephew Om Prakash Yadav.I told the police that the person whom they had declared Dhananjay Singh was my innocent nephew. But they refused to accept it. I then wrote to Mulayam Singh Yadav and the state secretary of CPM, said Yadav. Since Om Prakash was an active Samajwadi Party worker,his killing led to protests in several places. Mulayam Singh Yadav was then leader of Opposition. Under pressure,the state government had to order an inquiry. Two months after the incident,a fake encounter FIR was lodged by the then Bhadohi Kotwali in-charge PN Nigam and the investigation was soon transferred to the CB-CID. Four months later,Dhananjay Singh turned up alive in a Jaunpur court and surrendered in an old case,said Dinesh Nath Pandey and the CB-CID established that the dead man was actually Varanasi native Om Prakash Yadav. The other three were identified as Varanasi residents Kiran Harijan,Shamim Natte and Jaunpur resident Ajay Singh. It is believed that the police knowingly killed innocent men to claim the reward on Dhananjay Singh. Also,Yadav was led into a trap by two neighbours Panna Lal Sharma and BL Rai who were police informers. How the other three landed in the police trap is not clear. According to the chargesheet filed on August 8,1999,it was Panna Lal Sharma and BL Rai who identified Om Prakash Yadav as Dhananjay Singh to the police. In all,the chargesheet names 37 accused.
