A former Samajwadi Party MLA and his brother, an ex-zila panchayat chairman, have been booked on charges of grabbing government land and making criminal trespass into other’s property, officials said on Tuesday.
Ex-MLA Rameshwar Singh Yadav and his brother Jugendra Singh Yadav have been booked on similar charges by two different police stations, they said.
The first FIR against the duo has been lodged at Etah’s Kotwali Nagar police station under section 447 of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to making criminal trespass and sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 for land grabbing and committing mischief on it, they said.
The case pertained to annexing the government’s barren land by the two brothers with their farmhouse, they added.
Barely six hours after the registration of the first case, another FIR was lodged on similar charges at the Mandi police outpost. The case lodged here pertains to the grabbing of the land of an under-construction police station in the area, police outpost in-charge, Sub-Inspector Harendra Kumar said.
Speaking to reporters about cases lodged against him and his brother, Jugendra Singh Yadav alleged that ”the government is pressuring me to withdraw from the election for the zila panchayat’s chairman.” “My wife is the candidate for zila panchayat chairman post from SP. At the behest of the government, the district officials are coercing me by getting FIRs registered against me to force me to withdraw my wife’s name from the election,” he said.
On the registration of criminal cases against the two brothers, District Magistrate Ankit Agrawal, however, said he was not aware of it.
Etah Tehsildar C P Singh, however, said the FIR have been registered against the SP leaders for the illegal possession of government land.
They have included the government’s barren land inside the boundary wall of their farmhouse, for which the case has been registered against them.
