In the Jhandapur colony of Ghaziabad, the name of Uttam Upadhyay is on everybody’s lips. The dance teacher-turned-local right-wing leader is absconding since the video of his hate speech against Muslims at Jantar Mantar became viral on August 8. The hearing on his anticipatory bail is scheduled for August 25.
Advocate Ashish Jogi said he had applied for anticipatory bail because his client suffered from episodes of epileptic seizures leading to bipolar disorder. “No man in his senses could say such things. He was under the care of an AIIMS doctor in 2019. We have submitted the papers.”
Interestingly, last Sunday, in an interaction with this correspondent, Uttam’s elder brother Anuj didn’t mention the medical condition. He had said the family members kept telling Uttam that one day he would get into trouble because of his ‘rant against Muslims’. “It slipped out of my mind,” said Anuj.
He informed Uttam last visited his house on August 9. “The family has no idea where he is and the Delhi Police teams have checked our house and questioned us multiple times.”
Anuj said he has Muslim friends and didn’t know how he would face them. “Uttam used to attend RSS shakhas from a young age. He had attended a Bajrang Dal camp and had been the zonal deputy president of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha. But this aggressive side has developed in the last couple of years since he started following Narsinghanand Saraswati (controversial priest of Dasna temple), right-wing political commentator Pushpendra Kulshreshta and Pinky Chaudhary of the Hindu Raksha Dal,” he said.
Sanjeev Sharma, BJP’s district president, denied that Uttam was a party member or held any post in sister organisation.
Death in family
Uttam’s father Dinesh Kumar, who runs a stationery shop named after his absconding son, was also in a shock as the family was already mourning the death of their second son in a road accident last August. “We had been extra protective towards Uttam but he would not listen. He didn’t tell us about the Jantar Mantar event. We came to know when relatives sent us videos.” Anuj remembered one incident. “Some years ago, a cow had died in an accident and was being taken away by the residents of the neighbouring Peer Colony. As the news spread, it enraged Uttam. He conducted its burial with the help of local police. Soon he started taking out ‘Tiranga Yatras’. He had this belief that where Muslims are in minority, they preach brotherhood, but where they are in majority they try to dominate Hindus.”
The family hailed from Muradnagar town of Ghaziabad and Mr. Kumar’s father shifted to Jhandapur in the 1970s. One of his elder brothers is a member of the local BJP unit. “None of the party members has come in our support,” he said.
Situated in Sahibabad’s industrial area, Uttam’s residence is not far from the spot where theatre icon Safdar Hashmi was killed by a mob comprising Congress workers on January 1, 1989, when Jhandapur was a village.
