Uttarakhand MLA Adesh Chauhan convicted in 2009 illegal detention case

Chauhan has been a legislator since 2012.

In 2009, Dheer Singh Chauhan, the father-in-law of Adesh’s niece Deepika Chauhan, was allegedly kept in illegal detention for 36 hours and intimidated to face a “false dowry case”. Dheer Singh Chauhan was allegedly asked to transfer Rs 5 lakh, his agricultural land, and house in Roorkee to Deepika, according to the arguments in the case. Dheer Singh Chauhan had alleged that Adesh and Deepika used a pin to make scratch marks on the former’s wrists and sent her for medical examination “to fabricate false evidence against him, and no GD entry regarding MLC of Deepika Chauhan was made at Gangnahar police station”.

In 2019, Dheer Singh Chauhan filed a writ petition at the Uttarakhand High Court which ordered the CBI to conduct an investigation into the alleged custodial violence. An FIR was registered in October 2019 against then inspector R K Chamoli, then sub-inspectors Dinesh Kumar and R S Rautela and then constable Sanjay Ram — all then posted at police station Gangnahar, Roorkee. Charges were framed against the MLA and his niece in 2022.

The son of the victim and Deepika later got a divorce, and the dowry case against the victim and his family was disposed of in 2011.

Chauhan’s lawyers said he will not go to jail as the imprisonment is for a term that does not exceed three years, adding that a bail application was also moved and allowed.

Speaking to The Indian Express, the MLA said: “This is a 2009 case. I have also gotten bail today, and we will go for an appeal. Several BJP leaders have pledged their support for me”.

Meanwhile, Congress senior leader Suryakant Dhasmana asked what action would be taken by the BJP against the convicted leader. He said that the BJP, which often boasts about its principles, character, and clean image in politics, must now make its stand clear on this issue.

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