A dangerous trend has begun in Uttar Pradesh after the installation of dacoit Dadua’s statue in a Hanuman temple in Fatehpur.
A dangerous trend has begun in Uttar Pradesh after the installation of dacoit Dadua’s statue in a Hanuman temple in Fatehpur.
Family members and friends of other gangsters and criminals are now planning to install similar statues in temples.
According to sources, supporters of dreaded don Shri Prakash Shukla, mafia-turned-politician Virendra Pratap Shahi are to be installed in temples in Gorakhpur while a statue of Nirbhay Gujjar is to be installed either in Etawah.
The statue of Shri Prakash Shukla, who went on a brief but chilling murder and kidnapping spree in Uttar Pradesh in the late 1990s, is all set to come up in a Parashuram Temple in Gorakhpur where he was born.
The Brahmin Chetna Manch Committee has decided to put up Shukla’s statue. “The statue will be installed on Akshaya Tritiya, which also marks Parshuram Jayanti celebrations,” said Aditya Pandey, former BSP MLA and patron of Brahmin Chetna Manch Committee, who had recently joined the BJP.
Explaining the need for placing the gangster on a pedestal, he said, “Shukla fought with mafias of the state for the cause of community and is considered our icon.” Shri Prakash Shukla has a Facebook page that is regularly updated in his name by one of his supporters. The cover photo is that of Shukla after he was shot dead by the Special Task Force in October 1998.
Comments like “Lion of a don family”, “Saluting the tiger”, “Pride of Brahmins” and “Miss you big brother” adorn his wall on the social networking site that has 808 likes.
Virendra Pratap Shahi, a former MLA who was killed by Shri Prakash Shukla in 1997 in Lucknow, is also set to get his statue installed in Gorakhpur.
“He was a mafia-turned-politician but is known as the Robin Hood of the East. He helped the poor and never troubled them. It has been nearly two decades since his death but he is still remembered by the people. We are planning to install his statue in a temple here,” said a supporter who requested anonymity.
Shahi already has a statue of his installed at the Mohaddipur crossing in Gorakhpur.
Nirbhay Gujjar’s bust, on the other hand, is set to be placed in a temple built by him at Jaharpura village in Etawah. Gujjar’s cousin has announced that he would be erecting his statue at a temple built by the dacoit “very soon”.
A retired DGP, meanwhile, said that this was a very dangerous trend that needed to be nipped in the bud.
“The government should have acted — and it is still not too late — when the Dadua statue was installed. If statues of criminals are installed in temples, we will be encouraging the young generation to eulogise criminals and even emulate them. The government will probably not take action because each criminal represents a vote bank,” he said.
A top-ranking police official, meanwhile, said that there was no law that prevented people form installing statues on their private property.
“The government will have to bring a legislation in this regard before we step in,” he stated.
