Police conKanpur, 15 Sept: The noose is tightening around BJP politician Priya Ranjan Diwakar after a farmer, Babu Singh, 52, accused him and his associates of stealing 10 bighas of his land and committing suicide by jumping in front of a speeding train on September 9 in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur. R.K. Swarnkar, Commissioner of Police, stated, “Those responsible will go to jail.”
On Thursday, police conducted searches and questioned around 50 persons in Noida, Lucknow, Mainpuri, Prayagraj, and Fatehpur in search of the accused. Babu Singh, a resident of Chakeri near Kanpur, said in his suicide note addressed to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that Ranjan stole his field by providing him a forged cheque of Rs 6.25 crore.
According to authorities, the message was discovered beside the railway track.
Six persons have been charged with abetment to suicide and cheating on a complaint submitted by the deceased’s wife, including Priya Ranjan Diwakar, his nephew Jitendra, driver Bablu, Noida businessman Rahul Jain, Madhur Pandey, and Shivam Singh Chauhan.
According to the police, the FIR was filed under sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 506 (insult), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing handover of property), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy). Ranjan, a former BJP candidate from Mainpuri’s Kishni Assembly seat, reportedly offered to acquire the land from Singh under duress.
According to the farmer’s wife Bittan Devi, 45, Singh caved in to “pressure tactics” and decided to sell the land for Rs 6.25 crore, for which he was given a cheque. In March 2023, when Babu Singh transferred the land via registry, Ranjan requested return of cheque under the guise of rectifying a mistake.
According to the FIR, he told Singh that he would get the cheque the next day but did not pay the money. Bittan Devi stated that Ranjan and others have begun selling properties in Ahirvan village, a suburb of Kanpur. “It has been corroborated that no money was paid to the family against the land deal,” JCP (law and order) Anand Prakash Tiwari stated.
