Maya Hunts, Raja on the Run

His supporters are not being spared either. An MLA and MLC, who were part of the anti-Mayawati campaign, are cooling their heels in jail. Nearly 40 of Raja Bhaiyya’s supporters have been arrested so far. Another supporter, Vijayraj Singh, chairman of the district cooperative bank has been removed from his post. Official sources said the managing committee of the bank has also been dismissed and the district magistrate appointed its receiver. The official car of another confidante, Bindeshwari Patel, who is the chairman of the Zila Panchayat, has been taken away.

‘‘You can say that in Kunda, the sarkari goonda (government goon) is wielding the baton to finish a reign of terror which has gripped the region for the last several decades,’’ said Paramhans Mishra, the officer-in-charge at the local police station.

A lake, spread over an area of nearly 100 acres, which has been in possession of Raja Bhaiyya’s family for over a century, has been seized. The administration is now filling the lake, over which his family reportedly exercised exclusive fishing rights. ‘‘The pond assumed shape on the lands of many innocent villagers. The administration is only helping the poor villagers,’’ said Mohammed Mustafa, district magistrate of Pratapgarh.

In another move, the government has opened liquor shops in the town. Till now, it had failed to get any bidders for liquor shops in Kunda. The reason: the ‘‘mahal’’ had issued directives that only smuggled liquor could be bought. But now, police jeeps roam the town announcing that ‘‘consumption of liquor is injurious to health but those who need it can buy it without any fear from the government-controlled liquor shops’’. Revenue employees have been engaged to supervise sales, under the watchful guard of police constables.

Not surprisingly, Raja Bhaiyya has alleged political vendetta. But the state government is quick to deny it. Senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon said action had been taken against him because of his criminal antecedents. ‘‘No one has the right to take the law into his own hands. Law will take its own course if any person, howsoever powerful and well connected he may be, commits any crime,’’ said Tandon.

Mayawati choruses the refrain. ‘‘Action has been taken against Raja Bhaiyya on complaints lodged against him in different cases. It is upto the court to take any action…If the court thinks Raja Bhaiyya is innocent, he will be freed,’’ she said.

A history-sheeter (A-263) in Hathigawan police station records, Raja Bhaiyya has 23 cases against him, including that of murder, dacoity and kidnapping, in different police stations in the Pratapgarh district. His father is named in 40 cases, including those under the Gangster Act.

Raja Bhaiyya entered the political arena during the 1993 Assembly polls, at the age of 24 years. He won 70 per cent of the votes polled as an Independent candidate. Ever since, he has never lost an election.

‘‘During elections here, you will never find a banner or poster of any political party except that of Raja Bhaiya. Defiance means death here. Not only in Kunda, Raja’s shadow hangs over most of the five Assembly segments under Pratapgrah parliamentary constituency,’’ alleged K.K.Singh, president of the BJP’s Pratapgrah unit.

In fact, the people of Kunda even go to the ‘‘Raja’s darbar’’ for settling disputes. ‘‘The decisions here are instant. Nobody can afford to disagree with the settlement in the court of Raja Bhaiyya,’’ said a local shopkeeper.

And while Raja Bhaiyya spent a considerable period of his time in Lucknow due to political compulsions, his Youth Brigade looked after his interests here. The organisation, a registered body, has a membership of nearly 10,000 youths in Kunda. Its units have a presence in neighbouring segments also.

Opinions about this youth wing vary. ‘‘The youth brigade is a body which works for the welfare of the Assembly segment. Each year, it arranges the marriages of 11 poor girls and even arranges their dowries. Eye camps and other such relief programmes are an annual feature,’’ said Mathura Prasad Dhuria, a local scribe.

But Sushila, who reportedly lost her son and her house to Raja Bhaiyya and his supporters, begged to differ. ‘‘This is a body of goons which spreads terror everywhere and is engaged in every possible crime,’’ she said in an FIR lodged against them.