A video of the Bhim Army Chief, Chandrashekhar Azad, is going viral on social media, which showcases him threatening administrative officials in Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya. He can be heard saying, ‘Do you know, I can get you booked under the SC/ST Act. If you do not know, then let me tell you this. I will get you, the DM, and the CO, all booked. It will just take a minute, it is a very small thing for me, it will be done at the snap of a finger. Would you like to get trapped in a case?’
Reportedly, the video captures the Dalit leader on his visit to the Sahar police station area of Auraiya, where he had gone to meet with the widow and children of Brijesh Kumar, who was murdered on January 22, 2023. Brijesh Kumar’s mother’s dead body was also recovered from a farm in 2022, almost a year before Kumar’s own murder. His father Jai Prakash was allegedly murdered as well, but the charges of murder were not proven in any of these cases.
Aarti Devi, Kumar’s widow, had accused Gajendra Singh and 4 others of murdering her husband, and based on her complaint to the police, an FIR was filed against the accused. Gajendra Singh was arrested and no other arrest has been made in the case yet. And after Aarti Devi implored Chandrashekhar Azad’s intervention for justice in the case through a video message, the latter went to meet with the family, to pay his condolences, on February 7, 2024.
It was in relation with this case that Azad could be heard speaking with the SDM, and threatening him, the DM, and the CO of filing a case under the SC/ST Act against them.