Adityanath’s Data on Gorakhpur Deaths Fabricated: Former CM Aide

Sunil Singh, the man who was once known to be the right hand of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath—who was even called CM’s Hanuman—recently joined the Samajwadi Party after he turned into a bête noire for the former.

Singh, who could be seen accompanying Yogi Adityanth till 2016, faced charges under the National Security Act (NSA) in 2017 and was jailed for several months. He alleges that he was slapped with the case on the orders from Adityanath.

The founder of Hindu Yuva Vahini, a radical Hindu outfit—which was accused of lynching a person in Bulandshahr, rioting, razing houses in Gorakhpur and beating a Muslim man for allegedly having an affair—now has merged it into the Samajwadi Party.

NewsClick spoke to him about several issues including why his relationship with Adityanath went sour.

Sunil says that being a student of Gorakshapeeth and a disciple of Gorakhnath temple, he was always dedicated towards the temple, which led him to become the henchman of Adityanath in 1995. He says, “I saw CM Yogi Adityanath running from pillar to post to get a ticket to contest the elections and that was when he was given the post of the head priest of the Gorakhnath temple. I saw the chief minister crying in front of his Guru Mahant Avaidyanath and I felt very bad. In fact, I still feel bad for him as despite being the head priest, he was humiliated and insulted. He, however, got the ticket later when his Guru advocated for him.”

“That day I pledged to make Yogi ji so powerful that even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will bow in front of him. I made it possible and Hindu Yuva Vahini is the reason he is the chief minister today. I fielded my people from 36 Vidhan Sabha seats who funded their election themselves just so that Yogi Adityanath could get the prime position in the state and then BJP would come to him. Otherwise, there was no picture of Yogi ji even on the posters floated before the elections during the campaigning. I had said to Yogi ji that it was wrong and I am going to protest against it. Yogi ji then agreed with my idea of fielding the contestants, but backed off later—after we had fielded candidates—thinking that it might disturb his political bosses in New Delhi,” he says.

Singh wants people to know that Hindu Yuva Vahini was formed with the sole intention of making Yogi Adityanath powerful. “Because no one knew him, as he came from Uttarakhand and was not aware with the culture and geography of the Gorakhpur or say, eastern Uttar Pradesh. The Yuva Vahini was an organisation of youths which was given a prefix ‘Hindu’ by Guru Avaidyanath. It was Yogi Adityanath who made it radical because he instilled Islamophobia in our mind. He used to say things like Muslims will rule us in the future if we do not get united today,” he explains.

When asked what led to his arrest and charges under the NSA, Singh replied: “Yogi Adityanath is afraid of me because he very knows that I know many things about him. This was the reason that he even planned to get me killed by keeping me with the hardcore criminals from other faiths in the jail. I was tortured in the jail, was kept in tanhai (isolation) cell. But all this made me stronger and now, in coming days, I will slowly start revealing the real face of this monk who has been doing jumlebaazi and promises moon to the innocent masses from the state.”

The UP CM had brainwashed the members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, he alleges. “He (Yogi) has been a rebel against the BJP which has given prime posts to him many times in the past,” Sunil says, adding that he has been fooling the citizens of the state by presenting wrong and fabricated data on everything. “The data on the deaths in Gorakhpur is totally fabricated and kids are still dying due to encephalitis,” Singh claimed.

Sunil has now merged his outfit with Samajwadi Party, but it should be noted that dozens of cases against the outfit are pending and the police in its annual report have even called the outfit ‘udddant (belligerent)’.

Also read: CAA-NCR: Adityanath Govt Sends Property Confiscation Notices to 498 People