Skip to main content

Why this college warden may have been murdered in Varanasi's high security area

By Rosamma Thomas*

Vibhuti Bhushan Singh, 42, warden of a private college in Varanasi, was killed in what was allegedly an accident on February 10, 2022. His brother Kirti, who works in the UK, says it was no accident – his brother had earlier received threats to his life, and this was murder. The car he was riding that day was hit from the front, and the car that hit it had moved across two lanes to hit the vehicle his brother was in. This was premeditated murder, Kirti Bhushan Singh says.
On February 11, 2022, Singh got a complaint registered at the Varanasi Cantonment Police Station. He has named the manager of a college Ajay Kumar Singh, his brother Vinod, wife Seema Singh and two others including a cousin and a servant of the family in the FIR lodged in this case.
The FIR mentions that the family faces a threat to its life and property – Vibhuti, who ran a college established in memory of his late father who worked as a schoolteacher, would say that he was being stalked, and had earlier been threatened. A police complaint had been filed after the threat was received in October 2021, but no action was taken.
The First Information Report has been lodged under Sections 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, and also Sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The vehicle that caused the accident was registered in Bihar. There was no CCTV footage of the accident, even though Police Lines, where the accident occurred, is the area where the Prime Minister and the Union home minister have all landed in helicopters.
After the accident, Vibhuti Singh was taken in an autorickshaw to a government hospital – and he was refused treatment there because it had been declared a Covid-only hospital earlier. He was taken to another government hospital later, and then to a third hospital by ambulance after the family intervened.
“There are about four big hospitals in the area. How come the police did not know that the first hospital was a Covid hospital? Is that not fishy? Were deliberate delaying tactics employed? When I asked the investigation office of the progress in investigations a fortnight after the so-called accident, he told me no progress was made. No arrests, no follow-up, a whole fortnight later. And he said I was not the investigation officer, so I should not ply him with questions,” said Kirti Bhushan Singh.
Kirti says there is cause to fear for the lives of other members in the family too, given that the accused were targeting his brother over a conflict over land. Vibhuti Singh had been pursuing the land dispute case on behalf of his uncle.
A college has been constructed on the land his uncle owns, and the matter is in court; that college produced a forged revenue document while getting approval for its BEd programme, and the forged document was made available through a Right to Information application. A criminal case was then registered in this matter.
National Crime Records Bureau data from 2019 shows that there were over 37,000 road accidents in the state that year; over 27,000 people lost their lives in road accidents that year.
In UP there are precedents where murders have occurred in the guise of an accident. In 2019, then BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was among those accused of attempting to murder through staging an accident, when the car that the Unnao rape survivor was riding met with an accident, killing two. The woman and her lawyer were injured. The woman, who alleged that she had been kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor, had earlier written to the Chief Justice of India apprehending a threat to her life.
On October 3, 2021, Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni, was alleged to have rammed his vehicle through protesters, leaving four protesting farmers and a journalist dead.
Inspector Ajay Kumar Singh, station house officer in charge of the police station where this FIR was filed, refused to offer comments to this reporter: “I cannot offer comments on the progress with this case over the phone. I do not speak with news reporters that I do not personally know.”
---
Freelance journalist based in Kerala

Comments

TRENDING

'Enough evidence' in Indian tradition to support legal basis for same-sex marriage

By Iyce Malhotra, Joseph Mathai, Sandeep Chachra*  The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage provides space for much-needed conversations on issues that have hitherto remained “invisible” or engaged with patriarchal locker room humour. We must recognize that people with diverse sexualities and complex gender identities have faced discrimination, stigma and decades of oppression. Their issues have mainly remained buried in dominant social discourse, and many view them with deep insecurities.

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Victim of communal violence, Christians in Manipur want Church leadership to speak up

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ*  The first eleven days of May 2023 have, in many ways, been a defining period of Indian history! Plenty has happened in a rapid-fire stream of events. Ironically, each one of them are indicators of how crimes and the criminalisation of society has become the ‘new norm’; these include, the May Day rallies with a focus on the four labour codes which are patently against the rights of workers; the U S Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its Annual Report on 1 May stating that conditions for religious freedom in India “continued to worsen in 2022”; the continued protest by the Indian women wrestlers at Jantar Mantar for the expulsion of the chief of the Indian Wrestlers Federation on very serious allegations; the Elections in Karnataka on 10 May (with communalism and corruption as the mainstay); the release of the fake, derogative and insensitive film ‘The Kerala Story’; the release of World Free Press Index on 3 May which places India

Delhi HC rules in favour of retired Air Force officer 'overcharged' for Covid treatment

By Rosamma Thomas*  In a decision of May 22, 2023, the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of petitioner Group Captain Suresh Khanna who was under treatment at CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram, between April 28 and May 5, 2021, for a period of eight days, for Covid-19 pneumonia. The petitioner had to pay Rs 3,55,286 as treatment costs, but the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) only reimbursed him for Rs 1,83,748, on the basis of government-approved rates. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Unlike other revolutionaries, Hindutva icon wrote 5 mercy petitions to British masters

By Shamsul Islam*  The Hindutva icon VD Savarkar of the RSS-BJP rulers of India submitted not one, two,or three but five mercy petitions to the British masters! Savarkarites argue: “There are no evidences to prove that Savarkar collaborated with the British for his release from jail. In fact, his appeal for release was a ruse. He was well aware of the political developments outside and wanted to be part of it. So he kept requesting for his release. But the British authorities did not trust him a bit” (YD Phadke, ‘A complex Hero’, "The Indian Expres"s, August 31, 2004)

Polygamy in India "down" in 45 yrs: Muslims' from 5.7 to 2.55%, Hindus' 5.8 to 1.77%, "common" in SCs, STs

By Rajiv Shah Amidst All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) justifying polygamy, saying it “meets social and moral needs and the provision for it stems from concern and sympathy for women”, facts suggest the the practice is down from 5.7 per cent of Muslim families in 1961 to 2.55 per cent in 2006.

India joining US sponsored trade pillar to hurt Indian farmers, 'promote' GM seeds, food

Counterview Desk  As many as 32 civil society organisations (CSOs), in a letter to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and India joining the trade pillar, have said that its provisions will allow the US to ensure a more favourable regulatory regime “for enhancing its exports of genetically modified (GM) seeds and GM food”, underlining, it will “significantly hurt the livelihoods of Indian farmers.”

Modi govt 'wholly untrustworthy' on Covid data, censored criticism on pandemic: Lancet

By Rajiv Shah   One of the world’s most prestigious health journals, brought out from England, has sharply criticised the Narendra Modi government for being “wholly untrustworthy on Covid-19 health data”, stating, the “official government figures place deaths at more than 530 000, while WHO excess death estimates for 2020 and 2021 are near 4·7 million.”