The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has withdrawn a 17-year-old case against a former Deputy SP Sailendra Singh in Varanasi. The ex-cop has been exonerated from a fake case of vandalism that was filed against him after he had a fall out with the then ruling Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh in 2004.
Sailendra Singh was implicated in the false case for recommending the arrest of mafia don turned politician Mukhtar Ansari under POTA after recovering a light machine gun (LMG) from the premises of the dreaded gangster.
‘I and my family will remain indebted to the chief minister for this gesture’, teary-eyed ex-DySP Sailendra Singh thanks Yogi Aditynath
CJM Varanasi has ordered the withdrawal of the case against former Deputy SP Shailendra Singh. Reacting to the decision, the ex-DySP tweeted to thank Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for withdrawing fake cases against him. “I got a copy of the court order today only. I thank Yogi Adityanath ji from the core of my heart and would remain indebted to him for life,” he said in the tweet.
In a video that surfaced online, the teary-eyed ex-cop told the media that “a criminal case was lodged against me in Varanasi and I was put in jail. However, when Yogi Adityanath came to power, he initiated the process to withdraw the case. I have received a copy of the court order and I and my family will remain indebted to the chief minister for this gesture,” he said.
Singh recounts 17-years of trauma inflicted on him and his family by the then ruling SP dispensation
Shailendra Singh recollects how his career was ruined and the trauma his family had to face after the then ruling Samajwadi Party slapped dozens of charges against him for acting against the mafia don.
Full video 🇮🇳🙏 pic.twitter.com/WNu1DUVBId
— Shesh Paul Vaid (@spvaid) April 2, 2021
Heaving a sigh of relief, the former DSP said that he was happy that the truth had finally prevailed. He claimed that the criminal case filed against him was nothing but an arm twisting tactic of the then ruling party to silence him. He told the media persons that it was because of the criminal case that his life was ruined. He was unable to procure a passport or an arms licence, lamented the ex-cop.
The ex-cop stated that he still had ore than two decades of police service left when he had to resign. He became emotional speaking about how his family has suffered while he was in jail and stated that CM Yogi had talked to his family back then and had promised that he will get the false charges against the officer dropped.
The 2004 machine gun case for which Shailendra Singh had to resign from the office of the UP Police
For the uninitiated, this is the same case for which Shailendra Singh had to resign as an officer of the UP Police in 2004.
In 2004, Shailendra Singh was in charge of the Varanasi unit of the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh. The DySP had raided the premises of Mukhtar Ansari in January 2004 and had recovered banned LMG (light machine gun) just before the assassination of BJP MLA Krishnand Rai and six others. The DySP had then filed an FIR and slapped POTA on the mafia don.
The DySP had intercepted a phone conversation where Mukhtar Ansari was allegedly trying to procure an LMG from a fugitive soldier named Babu Lal Yadav. Shailendra Sigh had raided on the basis of information gathered and had recovered the LMG and 200 live cartridges. Babu Lal Yadav and his uncle Munar Yadav, who was working as Mukhtar Ansari’s gunner, were arrested on the spot.
Following this, the Mulayam Singh government, who was at the helm of affairs in Uttar Pradesh then, started mounting pressure on the ex-cop to withdraw the case or remove Mukhtar Ansari’s name from the POTA case. Sailendra Singh, however, refused to buckle down under pressure and resigned from his post as the DySP in February 2004.
After a few months of his resignation, the then SP government implicated the officer in fake cases and put him behind the jail. Fighting all odds, Singh came out on bail and joined the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh.
Sailendra Singh kept fighting against the establishment to prove his innocence until the BJP government led by Yogi Adityanath came to power in the state and filed an application in the court to withdraw cases against Shailendra Singh.
Soon after Yogi Adityanath came to power, the UP government had filed a petition in the court to withdraw cases against Singh in December 2017.
On March 6 2021, the court finally approved the state government’s plea to withdraw cases against the former DySP.
The illegal empire erected by mafia don Mukhtar Ansari is now in shambles. The Yogi government has not only demolished his illegal properties and cracked down on his associates, they have now won a Supreme Court case against the Punjab government to bring the mafia leader to face justice in UP.
