Shakya, earlier the BJP’s regional president for the backward classes ‘Braj Kshetra’, became the Bilsi MLA in March 2022. He has dismissed the allegations as fabricated and “an attempt to defame his political image”.
The complainant, a resident of the Civil Lines area of Badaun, has alleged that the 22 bighas belonging to his grandmother were transferred to his father in April 2019 after her death. Soon after Harish Shakya became the Bilsi MLA, he and his two brothers, Dharampal and Satendra Shakya, allegedly started eyeing the land and pressuring the complainant’s family through the MLA’s associates to sell it.
“Led by Harish Shakya, Dharampal Shakya and Satendra Shakya formed a group to occupy properties belonging to the weak and poor… tasked with different responsibilities to grab land,” the complaint said, as the court order noted.
According to the complainant, his cousin died by suicide after the accused abducted and tortured him. However, the accused then goaded the deceased’s mother to slap a murder case on the complainant’s family, who, facing police pressure, gave up a portion of another land in Bhoora Bhadraul to her and also paid up to get the cases against them withdrawn.
This year, when the family eventually gathered the courage to seek justice again, the BJP MLA, along with his two associates, Harishankar Vyas and Anand Prakash, allegedly raped the complainant’s wife.
According to the MLA, the complainant has been approaching the police, claiming the gang rape happened on 17 September but did not mention the incident in a statement to the circle officer as late as 23 September. “Couldn’t he inform earlier that this incident had happened? This shows that the incident is completely fabricated,” MLA Harish Shakya said in a statement.
Samajwadi Party MP Aditya Yadav, however, questioned whether Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath would bulldoze the house of its “rapist MLA”.
Speaking to ThePrint, Civil Lines SHO Manoj Kumar assured of an FIR in compliance with the court’s order. He said a police officer would record the complainant’s statement in the gangrape case, followed by a medical examination of the complainant’s wife.
Kumar, who also investigated the murder case lodged against the complainant’s family in 2022, confirmed that the court expunged the case because the deceased — the complainant’s cousin — committed suicide. “They were named fraudulently because of a property dispute. There were political people involved,” he said.
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‘Abduction & suicide’
The court’s order shows that the initial complaint against the BJP MLA said that in July 2022, the MLA’s brothers and six associates arrived at the complainant’s house and said that Harish Shakya wanted to purchase their land in Budhvayee village.
“My father refused to sell our land… they asked us to go and speak to the MLA once… I, along with my father, grandfather and cousin, went to the MLA’s house. When the MLA asked the land’s rate, my father informed that it was priced at Rs 80 lakh per bigha — a total of Rs 17,38,40,000,” the complaint stated.
“It was decided that the total land would be purchased for Rs 16,50,00,000 — 40 per cent of which would be paid at the time of signing the sale-purchase agreement, and the remaining would continue to be paid according to the ‘benama (sale deed)‘,” the complaint added. The BJP MLA allegedly made an associate pay Rs one lakh to the family on the spot.
However, two or three days later, the group approached the family to get them to sign the land deal, but the complainant’s father reiterated his demand for 40 per cent of the amount in his hand before signing it. The group then allegedly started abusing the father. “In retaliation, my cousin, who was present at the spot, also hurled abuses at them and used foul words for the MLA,” the complaint read.
Two or three days later, members of the group, along with two police officers, allegedly abducted the cousin from the government accommodation of the complainant’s family in Ujhani. “They took him to the Mamta Laun at Allahpur road, where he was beaten up, humiliated and threatened… Around 8 pm, my cousin was dumped outside the mandi committee office in Ujhani,” read the complaint.
The victim’s mother allegedly approached the Ujhani police station with a complaint, but the police took no action. “Upset over no action being taken against the accused despite being tortured by them, my cousin committed suicide by hanging himself at our Ujhani house on 5 August 2022,” the complaint read.
The police, the complaint added, conducted an autopsy but did not lodge any FIR.
‘False cases & torture’
Eight to 10 days after the suicide, the BJP MLA, along with his group, met the deceased’s mother, that is, the complainant’s aunt. The aunt was then allegedly goaded into lodging an FIR against the complainant, his father, grandfather, uncle and mother in connection with her son’s death under IPC section 302 (murder) on 27 August 2022. “They lured her, saying they would help her get a portion of land from us, along with Rs one crore,” the complaint read.
“That’s when we realised they could do anything to grab our property and decided to sell it to a builder,” the complainant said, speaking to ThePrint. However, “as soon as the group got to know about the deal, they immediately got our aunt to file an objection in the execution of my grandmother’s will at the Badaun tehsil office and got an order issued to stop the sale of the said plot on 5 September 2022 by the Badaun tehsildar”.
As a result, the complainant’s father could not execute the ‘benama‘ with the builder. Subsequently, the BJP MLA’s associates allegedly signed an illegal agreement for half the land with the complainant’s aunt — merely for Rs two lakh — and had bricks thrown on the land with a motive to take its possession.
“When the MLA and his group felt that we were still not succumbing to pressure, they used my deceased cousin’s wife, through whom they got a complaint lodged against myself and another cousin for gang rape, house trespass and criminal intimidation on 20 September 2022 in the Civil Lines police station,” the complainant further said.
He added that inspector Rajesh Kumar arrested him on 6 November 2022, kept him confined in the Civil Lines police station for three days, and tortured him with a belt thrice or four times daily. On 9 November 2022, the police allegedly handed him over to the MLA’s associates at the MLA’s behest. The group allegedly tortured him in Mamta Laun for a week till 16 November 2022.
‘Cases withdrawn’
The family’s plight continued when the group allegedly took the complainant and his father, mother and wife to the BJP MLA’s house and, as the first step in grabbing the Budhvayee land, made them sign blank papers and give thumb impressions. The complainant said that till the execution of the sale of the land, the police kept the investigations into the false cases pending at the MLA’s behest. The accused, meanwhile, executed the change of landuse, followed by the sale of the plots among the MLA’s associates and family members, he said.
“All of this was done while the murder and gangrape cases were pending. They kept threatening my father that if he did not sign the agreement, we would be tortured. We were not in any position to complain anywhere due to the pending cases,” he said.
“After the ‘benamas‘ were executed, the MLA and his group called my father and me and directed us to give Rs one crore and my grandfather’s land (in Bhoora Bhadraul) to my aunt. When we refused, he threatened us with jail.” he added.
“We gave Rs 11 lakh in cash to my aunt, in front of the MLA, and ten cheques, amounting to Rs 89 lakh, on 30 January 2023. Of the Rs 1 crore, the MLA and his group deducted Rs 30 lakh, saying they spent the amount in the proceedings of the cases. My grandfather gave 0.288 hectares to my aunt on 17 January 2023 and my father gave 0.33 hectares to her on 1 July 2023 and a written assurance that we would give our Badaun house to her too,” he further said.
Subsequently, a final report, the precursor to a closure report, was submitted to the local court in the murder and gang rape cases. “My aunt stated in the court that the cases were lodged out of property disputes and were fake and gave an affidavit to this effect to the court,” he said.
“Scared, we relocated to our ancestral village… However, as the fear abated, we started filing complaints on the entire injustice,” he explained.
‘Gang rape’
On 17 September 2024, the BJP MLA, along with his two associates, Harishankar Vyas and Anand Prakash, allegedly raped the complainant’s wife, the complainant said.
“They offered to pay Rs one crore to reach a compromise,” the complaint in the rape case read. The accused allegedly raped her though she refused their blank cheques, and Harishankar and Anand Prakash even filmed that incident. “MLA Harish Shakya looted our money and dharma too,” the complaint, dated 22 November 2024, said.
The complainant sent it to the Badaun SP via registered post, demanding a scientific investigation via a polygraph and narco test.
The court of Leelu Chaudhary ordered an investigation into the case while pointing out the case entailed several questions that only an unbiased police investigation could answer.
Issuing a statement Sunday, MLA Harish Shakya called the allegations a conspiracy but admitted that his relatives had bought some plots, terming the process “genuine”. “…because I have made this journey, from an ordinary BJP worker to an MLA. You have seen me work for the past 25 years, this is a conspiracy to defame me. I have no link to this incident. I am not linked to this property matter,” the BJP MLA said.
“There is a Bareilly firm on whose name this agreement has been registered. They have purchased it genuinely, everything is in white and black. The plot is not registered with me or my wife. If my relatives have purchased any plots, they have done registries genuinely. There are almost 50-60 registries,” he added.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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