Raja Bhaiya heaves a sigh of relief

Independent Uttar Pradesh legislator Raghuraj Pratap Singh on Friday heaved a sigh of relief after charges under the dreaded Prevention of Terrorism Act were dropped by the newly installed state Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Singh, who is better known as Raja Bhaiya, had been languishing in jail for the past nine months.

"I am grateful to Mulayam Singh Yadav for undoing the injustice meted out to me by his predecessor Mayawati, who broke all democratic norms and dumped me in jail simply because I sounded the bugle of rebellion against her," Singh told rediff.com

The decision to release Raja Bhaiya was one of the first taken by Singh after assuming office.

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Raja Bhaiya, his 70-year-old father Uday Pratap Singh, cousin Akshay Pratap Singh and another independent legislator Dhananjay Singh were booked under POTA in November last.

Since then, repeated attempts by Raja Bhaiya to get bail failed.

While announcing his decision to revoke POTA charges against Raja Bhaiya, Yadav said, "I am convinced that this anti-terrorist law was used against these four persons solely for political vendetta."

After Governor Vishnukant Shastri extended a formal invitation to Mulayam on Thursday to form an the government after Mayawati's fall, Raja Bhaiya promptly managed to get himself shifted from Kanpur jail to Lucknow's Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences for 'examination and treatment'. 

And just as Mulayam was sworn in as chief minister, the independent MLA from Kunda was in the 'Private VIP ward' of the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civil Hospital in the heart of the city. 

Asked what he thought of leaders like Mayawati, he said, "Well, what is required is a permanent mechanism be devised to prevent megalomaniacs like Mayawati to occupy positions of power, otherwise they will systematically devastate the basics of democracy."