Sultanpur: At Narayanpur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur district, most people go quiet at the mere mention of Ajay Narayan Singh and his family.
“We are living in fear now, especially after the doctor’s killing,” said a woman, refusing to be named.
The few who are willing to talk, claim that Ajay Narayan — arrested Monday in connection with the murder of Sultanpur doctor Ghanshyam Tiwari — runs a virtual fiefdom along with his family, demands a “cut” in every land deal in the area, and has sold many properties in nearby Shastri Nagar.
Despite seven FIRs against him, he had never been arrested, until Monday. His father Jagdish Narayan and cousin Vijay Narayan — also booked in connection with the doctor’s murder — were nabbed last week as well.
The FIRs registered against him paint a clearer picture. Sultanpur police records show there are seven in all, including four lodged between 2008 and 2021 for offences ranging from attempt to murder, rioting, extortion, theft, house trespass to criminal intimidation. The remaining three include the case of murder in connection with the 23 September killing of Tiwari, and two more lodged last week. Two FIRs were also registered against some of Narayan’s relatives.
In 2008, Ajay and some of his family members allegedly barged into the home of a shop owner and attacked its residents with spades over being refused free cigarettes. In 2021, he had allegedly beaten up a man who had borrowed Rs 2 lakh from his brother. According to a TV9 report, the man was locked up in a “torture room” where he was forced to drink alcohol and thrashed with sticks.
In the murder case lodged against Ajay Narayan over the killing of Ghanshyam Tiwari, the family has alleged that he tortured the Sultanpur doctor with a drill machine before beating him up.
Sultanpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Somen Barma released a video statement Monday, saying that Ajay, the main accused in the Tiwari murder case, had been arrested along with his driver Deepak Singh.
“He was arrested from the Payagipur area at around 4 pm,” a senior police officer attached to the SP’s office told ThePrint.
The Sultanpur police said the doctor had 10 injuries on his body. According to SP Barma, it seems he was “beaten badly with a stick”.
Asked about the family’s allegations of torture using a drill machine, Barma told ThePrint: “No such injury has been mentioned in the autopsy but the report has been sent to the forensic science laboratory in Lucknow. Their findings are awaited.”
Another senior Sultanpur police officer said on condition of anonymity that Tiwari had been repeatedly hit with a bamboo stick that had protuberances.
ThePrint reached Ajay’s brother Chandan Narayan for comment via calls, but did not receive a response. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Assault to extortion
Days before his arrest, the police had initiated proceedings under CrPC section 82 (proclamation for person absconding) against Ajay Narayan. Amid drum beats, they pasted a notice outside his home in Narayanpur, summoning him to court.
“FIRs have been lodged against him (before) but he was not arrested even a single time. People would be scared to file complaints against him,” an officer posted at Sultanpur’s Kotwali police station told ThePrint.
Villagers claimed he had dropped out of college. “He is known to pick fights outside the village and beat people,” a resident told ThePrint.
Soon after he was booked in the Ghanshyam Tiwari murder case, two more FIRs were lodged against Ajay last week on charges of extortion and taking illegal possession of government land. Not just him, members of his family too are in police crosshairs.
The FIRs followed a fresh complaint filed by deceased doctor Ghanshyam Tiwari’s wife Nisha on 24 September, naming Ajay Narayan, his father Jagdish Narayan, uncle Girish Narayan alias Babban and cousins Vijay and Chandan Narayan in connection with her husband’s murder.
In the complaint, Nisha alleged that the five accused along with four other unknown persons brutally beat up Tiwari, and had been asking for extortion money for giving possession of the two biswa of land (around 2,722 sq ft) they had purchased from Ajay’s octogenarian father Jagdish Narayan.
Between 4 and 5 October, Sultanpur police lodged two more FIRs against Ajay Narayan and his relatives and associates over old incidents of allegedly demanding extortion money, issuing threats and illegally taking possession of government land.
The first FIR was registered under IPC sections 384 (extortion), 504 (mischief causing damage) and 506 (criminal intimidation) while the second one was registered under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. ThePrint has seen both FIRs.
According to the 4 October FIR, Ajay, his uncle Girish Narayan and his relatives including Ashutosh Singh and ex-BJP councillor Arun Singh have been accused of demanding extortion money to allow a family to take possession of the land they had purchased from a person called Sanjay Kumar.
Speaking to ThePrint, Sunita Kumari, the complainant, said she had filed the complaint in March but an FIR has been lodged only now.
“We had purchased one biswa land for Rs 17 lakh from Sanjay Kumar Singh in Narayanpur five years back. Since we had taken a loan for the same, we could not start construction of the house. When we started the construction in March and raised pillars around the land, Girish Narayan, Ajay Narayan, Arun Singh and Ashutosh Singh demanded Rs 4 lakh from us and threatened to kill us if we didn’t pay,” added Kumari, a government school teacher.
The 5 October FIR, which names Ajay Narayan and his father Jagdish Narayan, was lodged under sections 2 and 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
The father-son were booked on a complaint by Mohammad Hasan Abdi, tax superintendent, Sultanpur Nagar Palika, who alleged that they have taken illegal possession of 0.51 hectares in Narayanpur that belongs to the nagar palika.
At least two family members of the 56-year-old ‘bahubali’ are part of the ruling BJP. While Chandan is district president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the BJP’s youth wing, Girish is former district president of BJP’s Sultanpur unit and, according to media reports, was a member of the party’s national executive committee.
Past cases
The first FIR against Ajay Narayan goes as far back as 2008. It was lodged on a complaint filed by one Brijesh Singh.
Brijesh, who lives in Sultanpur’s Om Nagar, ran a shop adjoining his house. Speaking to ThePrint, he recalled an incident with Ajay Narayan and members of his family on 29 March, 2008.
“My son Dileep was seated at the shop when Vijay Narayan (Ajay’s cousin) entered the shop and demanded cigarettes for free. My son refused to give them for free and this led to the latter calling Ajay, Chandan, their accomplices Ankit and Veeru to the spot along with some more persons. While Ajay, Chandan, Vijay, Ankit and Veeru entered our house and attacked me and my family members, the others remained outside the house,” he said.
Brijesh claimed that the accused picked up spades lying in the courtyard of the house and attacked him, his wife Pramila, his son Dileep, younger brother Rakesh and some other female family members. “We had a small puja at our house and several women had gathered. They did not even spare the women and attacked them with spades. I suffered a serious head injury while my wife, son and brother too were injured.”
Though an FIR was lodged against him under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restrain), 504 (mischief causing damage) and 506 (criminal intimidation), Ajay was never arrested in the case.
“The sections invoked against him were all for bailable offences,” advocate Nagendra Nath Shukla who practises in the Sultanpur district court, told ThePrint.
Sultanpur police records accessed by ThePrint show that chargesheets were filed in the case as well as the three other old cases lodged against Ajay Narayan, which are pending in court.
The three other cases — lodged at Kotwali police station of Sultanpur in 2012, 2018 and 2021 — were registered under IPC sections for offences including attempt to murder, rioting, theft, mischief, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation.
In the 2021 case, Ajay Narayan had allegedly beaten up one Rajendra Mishra, whose brother had borrowed Rs 2 lakh from Ajay’s brother Vijay before the latter’s death.
Rajendra reportedly told mediapersons that the police saved his life after he was locked up in a “torture room” where he was beaten up and forced to drink alcohol.
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Relatives on police radar
Last Wednesday, an FIR was also lodged against Ajay’s relative and former BJP councillor Arun Singh and his associates Vijay Bahadur Singh, Sushil Singh, Vinay Singh and Saurabh Singh under IPC sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty), 386 (extortion by putting any person in fear of death or of grievous hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult to provoke) and 34 (common intention) on a complaint from the state manager of a telecom company that had installed an electric meter atop a tower on accused Vijay Bahadur’s land.
The FIR — seen by ThePrint — states that the accused were not letting the company’s employees establish a commercial power connection, threatening and verbally abusing them.
“The company is being forced to pay diesel worth Rs 1,50,000 to the accused who are threatening employees and a network cannot be established in the area, causing discomfort to the public,” reads the FIR.
Another FIR was lodged last Thursday against Sultanpur BJYM president Chandan Narayan Singh on Sultanpur Nagar Palika tax superintendent Mohammad Hasan Abdi’s complaint under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act that he has taken illegal possession of 0.006 hectares of land belonging to the nagar palika.
I’m being framed, says cousin
Sultanpur Additional SP Vipul Kumar Srivastava told mediapersons that Vijay Narayan had been arrested last Thursday in connection with the Tiwari murder case and he will be taken on police custody remand.
Speaking to mediapersons last week, Vijay said he had been framed. “I am being forcefully framed in the case. I was made to sit at the police station for 7-8 days. I have nothing to do with it.”
Vijay Narayan’s lawyer Ranjit Singh told ThePrint that his client’s family stays separately from Ajay Narayan, adding that the police arrested him and Ajay’s father “under pressure”.
“We are waiting for the police to file a chargesheet against Vijay Narayan. We have no information about the facts on the basis of which Vijay Narayan has been arrested. The deceased’s wife had given a complaint saying that Ajay and two unknown accused were involved in the case but still Ajay’s father Jagdish Narayan and Vijay Narayan have been arrested. Vijay was stopped near a toll plaza, while he had gone to a temple in Rajasthan, on the pretext that he was being taken for questioning, but was kept in detention for seven days,” he added.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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