The incident pictures itself when suddenly 500 rounds of firing is seen killing 7 people including a BJP MLA.
It was the date of November 29 and the year was 2005. The day triggered something which resultantly shook not only one party or state but the whole country. After all, the matter was related to AK 47, legislature, crime and people’s lives.
It was barely a year since the Bharatiya Janata Party government lost the political power in the country and the UPA coalition government took over the reins in the country, an incident saw killing of 7 people including Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Krishnanand Rai (Krishnanand Rai) from Mohammadabad assembly constituency in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. The killing was the outcome of a 500 rounds AK 47 firing. In the post mortem report, marks of more than 100 bullets were found in the body of the MLA and 67 bullets were found in the bodies of the other seven people.
In the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections held in 2002, Krishnanand Rai contested as as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Ghazipur district’s 378-Mohammedabad Legislative Assembly constituency and defeated 5-time MLA Afzal Ansari. This victory was was considered a grand victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party because it was not an easy thing to defeat a 5-time MLA in the election field, that too in Purvanchal.
According to the experts, the battle for supremacy in the area was going on since around the year 2000, the massacre in 2005 is also linked to the same supremacy battle. Normally, Krishnanand Rai used to travel in a bullet-proof vehicle, but on that day, incidentally, after inaugurating the cricket competition organized in Siyadi village of Bhanwarkol block of Muhammadabad assembly constituency, he had already reached near Basaniya Chatti on the Lathudih-Kotwa road from Siyadi.
On November 29, 2005, the criminals were sitting in ambush suddenly started firing indiscriminately at his convoy. Criminals killed BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai and six of his associates, former block head of Muhammadabad Shyamashankar Rai, BJP divisional president of Bhanwarkol block Ramesh Rai, Akhilesh Rai, Sheshnath Patel, Munna Yadav and their bodyguard Nirbhay Narayan Upadhyay with automatic weapons. .
It was the charisma of Krishnanand Rai’s personality that his murder case was not confined to one or two pages of the newspapers, but the entire Purvanchal was horrified by it and this murder case shook the whole country. His popularity was such that there was a stir all around due to this massacre. Along with Ghazipur, Ballia, Mau, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Buxar, arson and sabotage were seen taking place continuously for about a week.
According to the local people, Krishnanand Rai (KN Rai) used to help the poor and downtrodden in every way, even he used to personally help them in the marriage of girls.
When this incident took place, there was a Samajwadi Party government in the state at that time. In the meantime, most of the top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, from Rajnath Singh to L.K. Advani demanded a CBI inquiry into this incident, but Mulayam Singh Yadav was not ready. While hearing the petition filed in the High Court on behalf of Krishnanand Rai’s wife Alka Rai, the court ordered a CBI inquiry into the entire episode and the case went on in the CBI court.
The case went on for almost 14 years in the CBI court, but due to lack of sufficient evidence, no accused could be proved, which was the most disappointing aspect of this massacre.
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