E-Paper
After rush of blood, a forced return to sense
JUST A year back when Sher Singh Rana, main accused in Phoolan Devi murder case, smuggled in the remnants of King Prithviraj Chauhan to India from Afghanistan, he was billed as the new Thakur icon. So moved was the community by his amazing feat that it announced construction of a temple in Mainpuri with a special place for Rana.
JUST A year back when Sher Singh Rana, main accused in Phoolan Devi murder case, smuggled in the remnants of King Prithviraj Chauhan to India from Afghanistan, he was billed as the new Thakur icon. So moved was the community by his amazing feat that it announced construction of a temple in Mainpuri with a special place for Rana.
But the plan could not succeed. According to SP Mainpuri K Satyanarayana, the temple was shelved because the community leaders behind it didn’t get expected publicity and political mileage.
The idea was conceived by two politicians with big criminal antecedents, Updesh Singh Chauhan and Vijay Singh. They might have been serving interests of different political groups, but both Chauhan and Singh saw an opportunity to mobilise the well-entrenched Thakur community on this issue. Quickly they organised the biggest convention of Thakurs who were invited from all over the country to laud Rana and his achievement on May 18, last year.
Not only the community responded, Rana’s mother was specially called in to lay the foundation stone for the temple. Raghvendra Singh Chauhan of Bewar, who attended this meeting, remembers there was great pomp and show associated.
Updesh Chauhan, former MLA with 65 criminal cases of murder and kidnapping, declared to donate the land adjacent to his cold storage. Vijay Singh chipped in with monetary and moral support.
The temple was supposed to be a double-storeyed structure with the sanctum sanctorum to house the remnants of Prithviraj Chauhan. The first floor was to have an idol of Rana who had restored the pride of Thakurs by risking his own life in hostile Afghanistan. Even after the meeting, Bewar bustled with temple-related activity.
However, the turn of events forced the protagonists to escape from under the spotlight. Updesh surrendered before court to escape adversaries and Vijay Singh lies low because of his enmity with a once-trusted gangster Sanjeev alias Jeewa Maheswari.
Other than political and publicity aspect, people say Updesh wanted to protect this land that he had grabbed for the temple near his coldstorage .
