Lok Rajniti Manch expresses concern over the mysterious death of Indian Justice Party (IJP) candidate from Jaunpur, Bahadur Lal Sonkar (48 years old), whose body was found hanging from a tree. It is very unfortunate that on the eve of Ambedkar Jayanti such a gory incident has taken place.

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Demand for CBI enquiry into the death of Dalit leader

Lok Rajniti Manch expresses concern over the mysterious death of Indian Justice Party (IJP) candidate from Jaunpur, Bahadur Lal Sonkar (48 years old), whose body was found hanging from a tree.

It is very unfortunate that on the eve of Ambedkar Jayanti such a gory incident has taken place.

The criminalization of politics is reaching alarming levels. As per media reports, the IJP said that "Bahadur Lal was receiving death threats from BSP candidate Dhananjay Singh and some top police officials. The latter were asking him to withdraw his nomination or be ready to face the music." (The Pioneer, 14 April 2009).

We demand a CBI enquiry into the incident and that appropriate legal action take place without delay against those who are responsible for the death of Bahadur Lal Sonkar.

Bahadur Lal was a dalit leader in Jaunpur. We are concerned that despite the fact that Bahadur Lal had reportedly informed the authorities about the death-threats and had demanded security.  Neither the security he requested nor any other action took place to preempt such killing.

The criminalization of politics is of extreme concern.  Those with criminal backgrounds should be barred from politics:

SR Darapuri (Lok Rajniti Manch's candidate from Lucknow parliamentary constituency), Dr Sandeep Pandey (Member, National Presidium, Lok Rajniti Manch), Ram Sagar (Lok Rajniti Manch's candidate from Mishrik parliamentary constituency)

Authors Bio:
Bobby Ramakant is a development journalist and has been writing on development issues since 1991. Health is one of the key focus areas he writes on. He is also a World Health Organization (WHO)'s WNTD awardee for 2008