Muzaffarnagar: MLA who ‘shared video’ that allegedly provoked mobs,hops parties,delights in guards

Som,who has been accused of sharing a video that provoked mobs in Muzaffaranagar,could not be contacted,having switched off his phone since being named in two FIRs. But he was on IndiaNews channel Wednesday,denying the charge and that he was absconding; he was out of Meerut for treatment,he said.

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Many BJP leaders say they have known him only since he rejoined the party in December 2011. The impression they have of him is based on the number of times he has switched parties and his obsession with guards.

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Armed with the means — he declared assets of Rs 19 crore in his last election affidavit — he had been organising Rajput panchayats in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar when he caught the eye of the BSP,which in 2007 announced him as its candidate for Sardhana assembly constituency. He left the BSP after it decided not to field him.

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Som joined the BJP and left in 2009,this time after being denied a Lok Sabha ticket. He joined the SP,reportedly after he had impressed Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh with his Rajput panchayats. The SP fielded him from Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat and he lost.

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By then,he was moving around with a couple of private guards with walkie-talkies. During the BSP regime,the government provided him four additional guards ,recall sources in all three parties he has been in.

In 2011,Som was back in the BJP. Said to be close to party vice-president Kalraj Mishra,he got the Sardhana ticket and won. “He has been involved in more development work than any other MLA in the region (all SP) with their local area funds,” says the BJP’s Meerut district president,Ashok Tyagi.

The SP government withdrew Som’s guards following a local intelligence report that he faced no threat. A few days later,he filed an FIR alleging some unidentified persons had opened fire at his home. The BJP raised it in the assembly and approached the chief minister. The government gave Som three guards in addition to the two he is entitled to as an MLA,but there was a catch. For the second guard,an MLA has to bear part of the salary; for Som,it meant paying 10 per cent of the salaries of four of his five guards,police sources say.

Som went to Allahabad High Court with a case for Y-category security — he had defeated a candidate involved in cow slaughter,held a mahapanchayat against the practice,and been receiving threat messages. Last April,the court ruled he was entitled to Y category. The government has now provided him one guard as an MLA and four under Y category,still five per shift but their services now free.

The video for which he faces an FIR shows two men killed by a mob and created an impression that this happened in Muzaffarnagar on August 27. He said on TV someone in his office had merely given it a “like” on Facebook.

The other FIR is for a provocative speech in a mahapanchayat on August 31. Among the three other MLAs booked is the party’s leader in the assembly,Hukum Singh,who claims Som did not get the chance to speak. “He was only raising slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’,” says Hukum Singh.

Much about Som is vague,including his education. He declared himself a graduate in his poll affidavit for 2009 and as “Class XII pass” in 2012. District chief Tyagi is not clear about the details of the “business” he declared. “In Meerut,the family is involved only in sugarcane farming. Sangeet Som possibly has businesses elsewhere.”