Scholar still fears for life

For Sheetal Birla, a research scholar, who has taken on the might of a heavyweight MLA belonging to the ruling party, the fight might have got over, but the battle has just begun. Even as Dibai legislator Shribhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit has been arrested and his Z plus security cover withdrawn, the research scholar fears for her life like never before.

Talking to HT at her Kasganj residence on Sunday evening, Sheetal termed the security arrangements made for her family inadequate. Looking shaken from being on the run for the past 45 days, she said, “I still fear for my life. What will these three cops do? Guddu can do anything even from behind the bars. He has already threatened to eliminate my brother.” Though the police chiefs of Eta and Kanshiram Nagar districts have deputed a sub-inspector and two constables at her residence, the parents — Dinesh and Manorama Birla — too look terrified. They said, “Hamaare bachhe bahar bhi jaate hain, police kahan-kahan unhe security degi.”

Sheetal thanked Chief Minister Mayawati for taking prompt action and ordering arrest of the MLA. She, however, said, “Had Guddu not done what he did to me and agreed to desert his wife, I would have chosen to spend the rest of my life with him. I was madly in love with him.” In the same breath, she said her briefcase was with the MLA which had a lot of evidence to substantiate the charges and nail the latter. She expressed happiness over the suspension of the Ramghat (Bulandshahar) SHO for registering false cases but said, “Pathak has to be absolved of all charges. He is innocent.”

After the arrest, a whole lot of people are now coming out against the legislator. Former Principal of Agra College, Mukhtiyar Singh, has said some henchmen of the MLA, posing as policemen, had on June 17 last come looking for Sheetal at his residence and threatened him with dire consequences. The house of Pramod Pathak, who helped Sheetal when she went into hiding, was also attacked at the behest of the MLA. According to Singh, under whose guidance Sheetal is doing research, she has passed each examination with flying colours. He said, “After completing intermediate from Kasganj, she came to Agra College and was the university topper in post graduation.”

Meanwhile, contrary to his earlier statements, the Dibai MLA confessed for the first time that he had known Sheetal for the past seven years. Talking to reporters at Kasganj Kotwali, where he was brought on Sunday night, he said, “She owes me a lot of money. Not able to return the amount, she is trying to frame me.” He, however, categorically denied reports of his marriage with Sheetal.

Once known as a close aide of former UP Minister Amar Mani Tripathy, Guddu had deposed in court as a CBI witness in the Madhumita Shukla murder case. Guddu, believed to own assets worth crores of rupees, once worked as a driver for Tripathy. In the last Assembly polls, he got elected from Dibai as a BSP candidate, defeating the son of former UP CM Kalyan Singh. Police sources said Guddu was a leading property dealer in Noida and was wanted in more than a dozen criminal cases.

As a key Brahmin leader from Bulandshahar in western Uttar Pradesh, he is said to be crucial to Mayawati’s social engineering concept. And the issue of his arrest has begun assuming political hues. While the BSP is taking credit for nailing its own MLAs and showing zero tolerance for crime, the Samajwadi Party (SP) is trying to cash in on the recent arrest of BSP MLAs for serious crime. Party State Secretary Ramsakal Gurjar said in a statement that the BSP was a party of criminals. He said that Pramod Pathak was an SP worker and though the Ramghat SHO had been placed under suspension, Pathak had to be absolved of all false charges.