Why the action against Raja Bhaiyya and his father now? They have had criminal cases against them since 1958.This has not been done out of any sort of political rivalry. Raja Bhaiyya has had some 20 cases against him and his father has over 40 cases. A sitting BJP MLA, Puran Singh Bundela, who is a Thakur, was threatened by Raja Bhaiyya and his armed gangsters one night. At gunpoint, he was forced to support Mulayam Singh. He escaped, took a rickshaw and came to my house. He was trembling with fear. I informed the police and we gave him security. An FIR was registered. Tell me, where am I involved in this? The complainant is a BJP MLA. The BJP is our alliance partner. Bundela was taken along and only then was Raja Bhaiyya arrested. Where is the political rivalry in this? If there was, we would have arrested his father, Udai Pratap Singh, with him. But we arrested him later, on January 25, on the basis of intelligence reports.Every January 26, there are intelligence reports about assassination bids. Are you convinced Udai Pratap was plotting your murder?Udai Pratap was very disturbed about his son’s arrest. According to intelligence reports, he planned to bump me off on January 26 when I would be at a public function for about two to three hours. His father is a mahir (expert) in all this. They had made arrangements for all the arms. The intelligence informed my principal secretary about this on the 23rd. Only then was the police alerted in Pratapgarh. On 25th, they prepared and raided his house. When they went there, they found AK-56 rifles, ammunition and foreign made weapons. He was booked under POTA. A second lot of unlicensed weapons were dug out the next day from his garden. Now the police is under attack for planting weapons. Tell me, would they have planted the jewels too?Udai Pratap alleges that the police may have stolen some of the ancestral jewellery.The media was there when the recoveries were made. The fact is that we have not touched the old cases against them. If we do, they will never come out of jail in this lifetime. Once they went to jail, many people came forward to tell the police about their atrocities. Then they started threatening government witnesses and one, Rajendra Yadav, was even killed a few days ago. When the deceased’s father gave a written report against his men, Raja Bhaiyya began saying that the Chief Minister wants him killed.Udai Pratap’s wife says others like Akhilesh Singh, Mukhtar Ansari and Hari Shankar Tewari should also be booked under POTA.There may be some cases against them. But when no illegal arms have been found on them, how can I book them under POTA? If Raja Bhaiyya was such a saint, how were 20 cases booked against him — mostly when Veer Bahadur Singh was CM? Then nobody had any problem. When a Dalit ki beti slaps POTA against him, everyone is enraged. What is this if not manuwaad?Are you worried about this action alienating the Thakur community?The Thakur vote is not with any party. They go with anyone who gives them tickets. We have 15-16 Thakur MLAs and two Thakur MPs. Thakurs in UP don’t vote as a block.How has the BJP central leadership reacted to such developments?They have been silent. And why should I be happy about this? It is not I, but the district administration which has slapped POTA. If I had done something unwarranted, the Central leadership surely would have commented. Some State leaders did comment, but those were individual views, not those of the BJP.Are other such fiefdoms running in your state?This will not be allowed in my government. I will take action against all wrongdoers, whichever caste they belong to. I don’t get into the chakkar of caste and religion. An accused person has no caste. Ask the people of Pratapgarh how happy they are now that Raja Bhaiyya has gone behind bars.
