UP Govt.'s singing Gangsta Rap

VIJAY UPADHYAY
AGRA.          When the Agra police caught up with one of the most wanted mafia dons of the district on Monday, the police team found a surprise waiting for it on the crime scene.
     Om Prakash, a prized gangster who had escaped being shot down by the police in atleast three encounters and charged under National Security Act each time, was moving about freely in the Shahganj area of the town, extorting money from businessmen and encroaching property, all under the protection of a police gunner provided by none other than the Uttar Pradesh government.
     Surprised by the audacity of the mafiaso, the Agra police immediately arrested the gangster, who is wanted in 33 different cases of murder, extortion and land-grabbing. Alongwith Om Prakash the Agra police also arrested his gunner constable Mahendra Singh alongwith a 9 mm carbine that was confiscated by the police.
     But the real surprise came when the police learnt that not only had the don procured police protection for himself, but he had assumed the portfolio of a senior functionary in the ruling Samajwadi Party and had also become a practicing lawyer at the Uttar Pradesh High Court in Allahabad by hiding his criminal past.
     According to Gulab Singh, Superintendent of Police, Agra City, Om Prakash had a long history of crime with the first murder case filed against him when he turned 21 and since then, he had committed several murders alongwith his brother Lala, forming the notorious “OP-Lala” gang which had created a reign of terror in Agra till Lala was killed in a police encounter in the year 2000.
     Escaping from the scene after his brother’s death, Om Prakash reached Dholpur in Rajasthan and got himself arrested under a minor crime of possession of illegal weapon. In 2004, he again committed another murder in Agra and ran away, again getting himself arrested in Allahabad with a country-made pistol to escape the clutches of the Agra police.
     Out on bail in this case alongwith 33 other cases, Om Prakash got himself a law degree from the Mathura district and began practicing as a lawyer at the Allahabad High Court, soon rising in the eyes of the senior functionaries of the Samajwadi Party in the town who appointed him as the President of the Legal Cell of the Samajwadi Party in Allahabad and it was probably this connection, that finally got him a police gunner as a “Christmas gift” this December.
     Armed to the teeth and this time, protected by the police itself, Om Prakash again embarked on his trail of terror, encroaching commercial land and then selling it to builders at high prices. Even on Monday, the Agra police acted on information of land-grabbing by Om Prakash and it was then, that the reality of this gangster came in light.
     When The Pioneer contacted Akhilesh Mehrotra, Deputy Inspector General of Allahabad on the reason for giving police protection to such a notorious gangster, he claimed that he had received clear orders from the UP government on 2nd December to immediately issue a police gunner to Om Prakash as he was facing serious threats to his life and accordingly, a gunner 174 AP Mahendra Singh was issued to him with a police carbine on 4th December.
     Asked if he knew about the criminal history of Om Prakash before he gave orders for a gunner to be issued for him, Mr. Mehrotra said that since the orders had arrived from the UP government, there was no reason to question the state government’s orders and he acted as directed by the government.

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