Dr. Sanjay Kumar Nishad, National President of the Nishad Party and a Cabinet Minister, has expressed opposition regarding the police encounter of Kamlesh Bind, who was accused of murdering Vineet Rai—the son of a hotelier—in Ghazipur. Dr. Nishad has questioned the encounter and is preparing to raise the matter with the Chief Minister.
Reacting to the Samajwadi Party’s statement on the Ghazipur police encounter, Minister Sanjay Nishad remarked that criminals have no caste, yet they should be given an opportunity to surrender. If an individual was accused of a crime, they should have been punished in accordance with the law. He asserts that Kamlesh Bind was not the prime accused in the Vineet Rai murder case; consequently, the police action raises several questions. He argued that if the police remain positioned to confront the accused, how can the latter surrender? The accused should have been asked to surrender and subsequently taken into remand.
Sanjay Nishad, a Cabinet Minister in the Yogi government and President of the Nishad Party, has raised sharp questions regarding the police encounter of Kamlesh Bind, the accused in the Ghazipur hotelier’s son’s murder case. He expressed his displeasure with the police action taken by his own government while attending an event for the Nishad community in Sitapur. Sanjay Nishad stated unequivocally, “Encounters should not take place; killing a person outright in an encounter in the name of maintaining law and order is not the right approach. Due judicial process must be followed in such cases.”
Cabinet Minister Sanjay Nishad questioned the encounter of Kamlesh Bind, noting that the law provides for punishment through the courts, and that procedure should have been adhered to. Regarding the police’s plan to invoke the National Security Act (NSA) against Kamlesh Bind’s family members, he challenged the authorities to invoke the NSA against him and his people first. He warned that if the police proceeded to invoke the NSA, the state’s jails would prove insufficient to hold everyone. “I will personally raise this matter with the Chief Minister. We ourselves have been victims of numerous fabricated police cases,” he said.
**Why no action against the main accused?**
Dr. Nishad argued that if the police were intent on an encounter, action should have been taken against the prime accused in the case. Challenging the Ghazipur police and the Superintendent of Police, he said that if their actions were truly justified, they should demonstrate similar action against the main accused as well. Expressing dissatisfaction with the police’s conduct, he demanded an impartial inquiry into the entire matter. The Cabinet Minister noted that the deceased’s wife had alleged her husband was tortured at the police station before being killed in the encounter; such allegations necessitate an independent and fair investigation. He insisted that the police must clarify the circumstances under which the encounter occurred.
**Rebuttal to the threat of invoking the NSA**
Responding to the Ghazipur police’s warning to invoke the National Security Act (NSA) against troublemakers, Dr. Nishad said that if the administration wished to take action, they should start by invoking the NSA against him. He alleged that a discriminatory attitude was being adopted towards the Nishad-Bind community—a stance the community would not accept.
**Will complain to the Chief Minister**
Dr. Nishad stated that he would raise the entire issue with the Chief Minister. He alleged that the working style of certain officials was creating an atmosphere hostile to the government. The view was that such incidents, which offend the community of an ally during an election year, could prove politically damaging.
