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Jailed ex-MP Dhananjay Singh transferred, to now be released from Bareilly prison
Stating that the order from the jail and reform service headquarters read that Singh was relocated on administrative grounds, senior jail officials said he would now be released from the Bareilly jail after it received the court’s orders.
Former MP Dhananjay Singh was on Saturday transferred to the Bareilly Central Jail from the Jaunpur district jail just hours before the Allahabad High Court granted him bail in connection with a case of kidnapping and extortion registered against him in 2020. On March 6, Singh was awarded a seven-year jail term after a court found him guilty in the case.
Stating that the order from the jail and reform service headquarters read that Singh was relocated on administrative grounds, senior jail officials said he would now be released from the Bareilly jail after it received the court’s orders.
The conviction and sentencing of the former Jaunpur MP and his aide Santosh Vikram Singh for the kidnapping and extortion of Namami Gange project manager Abhinav Singhal came as a jolt amid murmurs of the Samajwadi Party (SP) giving him the ticket for Jaunpur. The BJP, meanwhile, has fielded former Maharashtra home minister Kripa Shankar Singh from the seat.
Dhananjay Singh was, thereby, barred from contesting elections under the Representation of the People Act.
He, meanwhile, backed his wife Shrikala Dhananjay Singh, who’s the sitting zila panchayat chairperson from Jaunpur, after the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced her as its candidate from the seat on April 16. The SP fielded former BSP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha from Jaunpur.
Speaking to media persons, Shrikala expressed fear for her husband’s life. She said his opponents could target him during his transfer to the central jail. She questioned the need for a transfer when the decision over his (Dhananjay’s) bail was pending before the high court the same day. She confirmed that bail had been granted to him by the high court.
Dhananjay, also a two-time independent MLA from Rari (now Malhani) assembly seat of Jaunpur, represented the Jaunpur Lok Sabha seat as a BSP member from 2009 to 2014.
On May 11, 2020, Abhinav Singhal of Muzaffarnagar, then posted as the Namami Gange project manager in Jaunpur, lodged a complaint against Dhananjay and Santosh Vikram Singh. Singhal alleged that Santosh, along with two of his accomplices, kidnapped and took him to the residence of the former MP.
He claimed that Dhananjay assaulted him while holding a pistol and pressurised him to supply substandard construction materials. The complainant later turned hostile in the case.
