UP govt slaps Gangster's Act on arrested BSP MP

The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday slapped the Gangster's Act on mafia don-turned-Bahujan Samaj Party MP Dhananjay Singh who was arrested last week in connection with a double-murder committed in 2010.

The arrest had followed his indictment by the crime branch of Criminal Investigation Department to which the double murder case was entrusted shortly after the incident.

According to an official spokesman, "Dhananjay Singh was involved in a number of heinous crimes including murder, kidnapping and extortion; he had always managed to evade arrest and had unleashed his terror in several parts of East UP including his home district Jaunpur; hence it was necessary to restrain him by using the provisions of the Gangster's Act."

Interestingly, this was not the first time that Dhananjay Singh had fallen out with his political mentor UP chief minister and BSP president Mayawati.

A couple of months back he was suspended from the party for paying a visit to former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, then lodged in Tihar Jail on charges of involvement in the cash-for-vote scam.

However, while revoking his suspension in the next two months, an official press release issued on behalf of the chief minister explicitly stated that Dhananjay Singh was "now being detailed to work towards mobilising support of the Kshatriya community for the BSP."

He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 2009 and was known to be commanding a huge muscle-power following in parts of Eastern UP.

Earlier, he was associated with the Samajwadi Party, but switched loyalties to BSP after Mayawati's rise to power on the strength of her own party in 2007.

Singh, who has more than a dozen criminal cases pending against him, was also among the suspects in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam that rocked the state earlier this year and even led to the murder of two chief medical officers.