Lucknow: The Supreme Court came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh Police last month for “enjoying power” and filing multiple cases against Anurag Dubey, jailed gangster-politician Anupam Dubey’s brother, and warned the state’s DGP of a potential “strong order”.
The apex court said the UP Police had entered a “dangerous area” by lodging FIRs against Dubey in civil cases and even labelling property bought through registered sale deeds as “land grabbing”.
“The petitioner was asked to join the investigation but he has sent only an affidavit and did not appear in person before the investigating officer. It seems that the petitioner is still under the fear of registration of some new case so as to arrest him,” the court said in its order on 28 November.
A bench of justices Surya Kant and Ujjwal Bhuyan was hearing Dubey’s appeal against an August 13 Allahabad High Court order refusing to quash an extortion case lodged against him.
The bench further directed that Dubey should not be taken into custody under any circumstances—whether in connection with existing cases or fresh ones—without the prior permission of the court.
The Supreme Court’s censure has put the spotlight on Dubey, aka Dabban, who once faced as many as 25 cases in connection with various charges including murder, attempt to murder, extortion, criminal intimidation and land grab.
His brother, Anupam Dubey—the leader of a gang numbered D-47 in police records—was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2023 for a 1996 murder. He’s also a well-known face in Farrukhabad’s politics, and several of his family members have served in different posts in the district. Anupam himself fought the assembly elections from Hardoi’s Savayazpur in 2017 on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket but lost.
Anurag Dubey’s criminal history records in possession with ThePrint show that he had six cases lodged against him between 2004 and 2020, and after his brother Anupam went to jail, another 19 were slapped against him from 2021 onwards, mostly for extortion, forgery, criminal intimidation, cheating and fraud in property-related disputes. They include three Gangsters Act cases and one Goonda Act case
In 2005 and 2010, two murder cases were also lodged against him in the Mainpuri and Fatehgarh police stations, while two attempt-to-murder cases were lodged against him in 2000 and 2020.
Dubey’s lawyer, Jitendra Kumar Singh, told ThePrint he had been acquitted in all the six cases lodged against him before 2021.
Earlier, in October, the top court had granted Dubey interim protection from arrest but it refused to quash the police complaint against him.
Also read: What made Jhansi hospital blaze worse? Higher oxygen levels, overcapacity & ‘ignored’ advisory
What was the case?
The court order relates to a police complaint lodged in Maudarwaja police station on 2 July, after a Farrukhabad resident, Shakuntala, accused Dubey and others of “fraudulently” seizing part of a plot in Badpur owned by her.
The FIR accuses him of causing hurt, extortion by putting a person in fear of death, criminal trespass, criminal intimidation and intentional insult leading to a breach of public peace.
Police summoned Dubey for questioning and later issued a lookout notice when he failed to turn up. But his lawyer said the Allahabad High Court granted a stay on his arrest on 24 October.
“We had approached the Allahabad High Court for a stay on arrest which the court granted on 24 October this year,” his lawyer, quoted above, told ThePrint.
The Supreme Court noted that the Uttar Pradesh government’s counsel had said that while Dubey was asked to join the investigation, he only sent an affidavit and did not appear in person before the investigating officer (IO).
Speaking to ThePrint, Dubey alleged that the UP Police have been lodging FIRs against him indiscriminately and he fears that if he appears before them, they might lodge yet another case against him.
“Their motive is to keep me under arrest which is why I am unable to appear before the police. My entire family is living in fear because the police have lodged cases against my two younger brothers too. All our bank accounts have been seized,” he said.
His sister-in-law, Minakshi Dubey, said the Dubey family had been unfairly targeted.
“I was working as a primary teacher at a government school in Fatehgarh but was suspended. When we ask police officers why we are being targeted, they say they have pressure from the top. The government says that it is working at making a mafia-free state but it has turned us into mafias,” she told ThePrint.
Also read: How ‘sympathy factor’ helped SP’s Naseem Solanki, wife of jailed ex-MLA, clinch win in UP’s Sishamau
Family with history of criminal cases
In his 40s, Dubey comes from a family with a long history of criminal cases. His late father, Mahesh Dubey, had a criminal record with several cases against him. Mahesh’s four sons—Anupam, Amit, Anurag and Abhishek—have multiple cases against them.
“His father was a history-sheeter and so is Anupam. Several of Anupam’s family members have criminal antecedents,” district government counsel (criminal) Dileep Awasthi told ThePrint.
The longest list of cases is against Anupam, who has at least 63 cases lodged against him for murder, extortion, loot and dacoity as well as cases under the Gangster Act and Goonda Act across Kanpur, Kannauj, Mainpuri and Sitapur.
The most sensational case against Anupam involved the murder of Government Railway Police (GRP) inspector Ram Niwas Yadav in May 1996 when he, along with two others, shot Yadav dead in a moving train in Kanpur.
“The inspector was killed by Anupam and his accomplices—Kumar alias Bailiya and Kaushal—in a running train. Six months before the incident, Anupam’s father, Mahesh, was killed by a mob in Kannauj after their vehicle hit a minor. Anupam suspected Yadav’s hand in his father’s killing and killed him,” Awasthi said.
He added: “The case remained on the back-burner between 1996 and 2021 as charges could not be framed. It gained pace only in 2021 when the charges were framed.”
He said the case remained on the back-burner because Yadav’s police inspector sons could not testify before the court due to fear of Anupam.
It was only after the Farrukhabad administration started the procedure of attaching his house in Kasaratta Fatehgarh in July 2021 that Anupam surrendered before a local court. The surrender was in connection with another case—the murder case of a contractor named Shameem.
After his surrender, Farrukhabad police made announcements in Fatehgarh, Maudarwaja and Mohammedabad areas of the district, with officers declaring to the public here that they “need not fear the hardened criminal”.
Subsequently, more cases were lodged against Anupam and his family members after people came forward to lodge their complaints.
A senior UP police officer said, “Effective action started against Anurag and other family members only after his brother went to jail.”
Eventually, Anupam was convicted in the 1996 murder of Yadav and sentenced to life imprisonment by a Kanpur court in December 2023.
Anupam was officially classified as a mafia figure in UP police records in 2023 after police prepared a list of 61 criminals and recommended to the government that a crackdown be launched against them. Subsequently, the history sheets of D-47 gang members were opened and Anupam was booked under the National Security Act (NSA).
After Anupam’s sentencing last year, the UP Police seized properties and assets worth Rs 113.13 crore amassed by the Dubey brothers allegedly through criminal activities. Anurag said he went absconding because he was afraid of being arrested.
‘All of this is political’
After the Supreme Court came down heavily on the UP Police for lodging FIRs even in civil cases and terming as “land grabbing” even those cases “where property was bought through a registered sale deed”, Anurag Dubey gave an exclusive interview to YouTube channel Top Secret in which he said that the cases lodged before 2021 were disposed of after trial.
He claimed that in the 2021 district panchayat elections, his elder brother, Anupam, played “a good role in the BJP’s favour”.
It was widely reported that the BJP had solicited Anupam’s help to ensure that the independent candidate it supported, Monika Yadav, won the Farrukhabad district panchayat election in 2021.
Yadav was seen with Anupam during the election and BJP unit leaders celebrated her win in the Dubeys’ Guru Sharnam Palace hotel.
Days after her win, however, the administration started the procedure of seizing Anupam’s properties in connection with the 1996 inspector’s murder case.
“Looking at (the help his family extended to the BJP in ensuring Monika’s win), the local leaders started opposing us, which is why we are suffering this….all of this is political. This is happening at the behest of some leaders of the same caste as ours (Brahmin),” Anurag Dubey told ThePrint.
He said their family’s hotel, Guru Sharnam Palace, in Farrukhabad was brought down on the grounds that it was built on pond land.
“Then, three cases were slapped against me saying that we had grabbed that land from others. The Supreme Court has stayed the proceedings in those cases. There are multiple buildings in that area and another owner was also given a notice. However, no action was taken against that hotel,” he claimed.
When contacted, UP BJP state spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said the local Farukkhabad unit of the party would be able to answer about the allegations levelled by Dubey about the involvement of the local BJP leaders in lodging of cases against him. “As far as the Supreme Court order is concerned, the same will be adhered to,” he added.
Speaking to ThePrint, BJP Farukkhabad district president Rupesh Gupta admitted that the Dubeys had supported BJP-supported candidate Yadav in the district panchayat election.
“I don’t much about this but it is true that in the district panchayat election, the independent candidate supported by the BJP got support from them too. The candidate, Monika Yadav, joined BJP after election,” he said.
In its latest ruling, the Supreme Court ordered that Anurag Dubey’s mobile number provided to the SHO of Maudarwaja police station be switched on 24/7. It added that the investigating officer could inform him of the time, date and location to join any investigation related to the FIRs. Dubey was directed to comply with any notices received on his mobile from the IO.
On Sunday, Dubey walked into the Maudarwaja police station after he was called by the investigating officer in the land grab case lodged by Shakuntala, but not before he went live on Facebook, declaring his appearance before the police.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also read: Madrasas in UP aren’t asking for govt recognition—they’re trying to lose it. Here’s why