E-Paper
Denied ‘goonda tax’, muscleman digs up 3-km stretch of new highway
A muscleman associated with a local BJP MLA dug up a newly constructed state highway in Shahjahanpur due to a refusal to pay 'goonda tax'.
A muscleman claiming to be an associate of a local BJP MLA dug up a three-kilometre stretch of a newly constructed state highway in Shahjahanpur because the contractor refused to pay alleged ‘goonda tax’ (give in to extortion demands).
The local muscleman, along with 15-20 associates, dug up the road on October 2 night using a heavy earth-mover, according to an FIR lodged in this connection.
With the incident coming to light, the Uttar Pradesh government issued a statement that said: “In the road dug-up incident of Shahjahanpur, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister has issued stern instruction. After the FIR has been filed, now damages will be realised from the accused.”
According to a government statement, divisional commissioner Saumya Agrawal has issued an order to PWD chief engineer Sanjay Tiwari to do an assessment of the damage to the road and the monetary loss due to it.
Soon, the report will be ready. Agrawal also said that the police were conducting raids to arrest all the accused in the case.
The Jaitpur police in Shahjahanpur have filed the case under the Damage to Public Property Act 1984 and other relevant sections. The seven-kilometer new road is in Jaitipur on the Shahjahanpur-Badaun state highway.
Ramesh Singh of M/s Shakuntala Singh, Gorakhpur, the firm that was constructing the road, said: “The seven-km road was being constructed at a project cost of ₹12.5 crore and the henchman Jagveer Singh, citing himself to be an associate of the local MLA, had been demanding 5% of the project cost as ‘tax’. Jagveer Singh and his associates for the past few months have been threatening and bashing up our workers on site. We were just 15 days short of completion of the project when at around 9 pm on October 2, he, along with 15-20 others, came to the site with a heavy earth-mover and dug up a three km stretch of the road and poked holes in the rest of the patch.”
Shahjahanpur superintendent of police (SP) Ashok Kumar Meena said: “We filed the FIR immediately after the application was made on October 3. Rounded up some people for questioning and a police team is engaged in arresting the main accused. We are likely to arrest him today”.
Ramesh Singh, the contractor, said: “Jagveer Singh often came on the site and even threatened to set our machines on fire if we did not pay the ‘tax’”.
He further said: “This was the road that was virtually non-existent for decades -- it was so bad. We constructed the new road. Now, the three kilometre damaged part is under investigation. We will give the finishing touches to the remaining stretch and hope to finish it within 15 days. The local police outpost is giving security cover to the construction work that we have resumed today.”
