The UP Police crackdown against the Samajwadi Party leaders of Etah and other districts facing serious criminal charges of extortion, intimidation and land grabbing prompted general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav to call on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to seek his intervention.
The UP Police are in the process of detaining the SP leaders of Etah under the National Security Act.
Sources said Ram Gopal Yadav explained over a year-long history of crackdown by the police against former SP MLA of Etah Rameshwar Yadav and his brother Jogendra Yadav, former chairman of district panchayat. The sources claimed that the chief minister said he would look into the matter.
Former SP legislator Rameshwar Singh Yadav has been booked under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti Social Activities (Prevention) Act for grabbing government land. His brother Jogendra Singh Yadav, former district panchayat chairman, has also been named as a member of the ‘gang’ involved in grabbing government land. The SP leaders alleged that the actions of the district administration and police were politically-motivated.
On April 2 earlier this year, the Etah district administration demolished a brick kiln operated by the SP leader in the Ghadi Roshan village under Aliganj tehsil.
Four bulldozers were used to remove alleged encroachments on 33 bigha land worth over Rs 15 crore. A portion of a cold storage owned by the former MLA’s son was also demolished.
Ahead of the panchayat elections in April 2021, the Etah police had registered FIRs in three different cases of alleged land grabs and illegal construction work against Rameshwar Singh Yadav and Jogendra Singh Yadav. Later, they were declared ‘land mafia’ and their properties were demolished. The district administration vacated the land under the illegal possession of the Yadav brothers. They had constructed a farm house there.
The administration also demolished 32 shops built by Rameshwar Yadav besides the district agriculture marketing yard or Mandi Samiti.
On July 12 earlier this year, the Etah district administration had seized the palatial residential building of the SP leaders in Premnagar. The Etah district magistrate had on June 17 last, under Section 13 (1) of the UP Gangsters Act, issued orders for the attachment of assets worth Rs 29 crore of the SP.
Ram Gopal Yadav, after meeting the chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday, said he discussed the plight of backward communities and Muslims in the state. The meeting was held at the CM’s official residence in Lucknow.
“Today, the chief national general secretary of the Samajwadi Party, Professor Ram Gopal Yadav, met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow. Talks were held in the context of persecution of backwards and Muslims across the state by filing false cases unilaterally. The government should take back the fake cases,” the SP said in a tweet.
Ram Gopal Yadav (76), a Rajya Sabha MP, is the uncle of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Meanwhile, UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said on Tuesday: “All the goondas and mafia patronised by the Samajwadi Party will face action and law will take its own course. There is no question of vendetta. There is no action of any kind against Ram Gopal Yadav, the criminals will not be spared.”
“There is no element of news in the meeting of Ram Gopal Yadav with the chief minister. Any citizen can meet the chief minister. Times have changed and none can pursue electoral politics with the backing of goondas, mafia and rioters. You can do politics only with the blessings of the common people,” Maurya said.