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4-yr-old shot at police and lifted cars, claim UP cops
Twelve-year-old Shiv Prasad Yadav, according to Uttar Pradesh Police, is a criminal with a history. In 2001, when he was just four and stayed with his mother in eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar district, the Jaunpur police booked him under the Gangster Act. Anuraag Singh reports...
Twelve-year-old Shiv Prasad Yadav, according to Uttar Pradesh Police, is a criminal with a history.
In 2001, when he was just four and stayed with his mother in eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar district, 180 km east of Lucknow, the Jaunpur police booked him under the Gangster Act.
Yadav, now a Class VIII student of Ekta Public School in Rohtak, Haryana, has been appearing before a gangster court in Varanasi twice a month for the last four years.
Dressed in his school uniform, the son of a daily wage labourer told Hindustan Times: “I have to miss school when I come to the Banaras kachehri (Varanasi courts) with my father.”
According to his lawyer J.S. Upadhyaya, another man, arrested for firing on a police party, lifting trucks and jeeps and selling stolen vehicles told the police his name was Shiv Prasad Yadav and that he was a resident of Kandawa Bharatpur village.
Instead of verifying the credentials of the man, the police produced him before the court and sent him to jail. But he managed to get bail. On March 15 2001, the cops slapped the Gangster Act against him, but he did not respond to repeated police summons.
A few years later, a police team went to the village to nab the absconder, but could not get a whiff of him. Later, to the horror of Shiv Prasad’s father Dashrath, his eight-year-old son received summons from the court instead.
For the first time, Yadav, along with his grandfather, appeared before the Gangster Court on March 28, 2005. Since then, it has become a monthly ritual. Besides, Yadav is being tried for four other cases, including one that pertains to firing on a police party.
When the court realised the truth, it directed the Jaunpur Police to submit a report about the accused’s age, but no report has yet been submitted. “Even the court’s directive to the investigating officer to appear before it has been ignored,” said Upadhyaya.
Additional District Judge (IV) G.K. Srivastava directed that all police proceedings, including arrest of a minor, be stayed till the next hearing on September 20 and summoned the Jaunpur police station chief to appear before the court along with the pending report about the accused and his age.
A tearful Dashrath Yadav, the boy’s father said, “I earn about Rs 100 a day working at construction sites. Appearing before the court twice a month is a big strain on our finances.”
