SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 19: The political path of the three-term Baghmara (Dhanbad) MLA Dhulu Mahto of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become tough because whenever he is exonerated from one, another criminal case is slapped on him.
As per official records of Dhanbad police, a total of 43 cases have been registered against Dhulu Mahto in the last 25 years (since 1997) in connection with extortion, sexual exploitation, land grabbing, releasing the accused from police custody, threatening lives, and others. The majority of these cases are lodged at Baghmara, Barora police stations.
21 cases out of 43 were filed against Dhulu Mahto after 2009 when he was elected as the MLA. Seven cases have been filed in two years of the Hemant Soren-led coalition government after 2019.
In 2004, Dhulu Mahto fought unsuccessfully on the Jharkhand Vananchal Congress ticket, but in 2009 he won for the first time on the ticket of Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (JVM). He joined the BJP before the 2014 election and won. He retained the seat in 2019.
Though he has been cleared of allegations in several cases by the courts, the most recent complaint filed at Rajganj police station of the district on February 16, 2022, for damaging a hard coke factory’s boundary wall and alleged extortion demand of Rs 10 lakh has caused him considerable problems.
“I am innocent and under a well-calculated political conspiracy, I have been framed in false charges,” said MLA Dhulu Mahto.
Dhulu’s bad days began with the BJP-led state government’s defeat in the December 2019 assembly election.
Within a month after the Hemant Soren government’s installation in Ranchi, Dhulu Mahto was arrested in a three-year-old sexual exploitation case filed by the party’s female leader. She claimed that Dhulu Mahto had summoned her to the Hindustan Zinc Factory guest house in Tundu for party work and misbehaved with her.
Notably, Dhulu Mahto was considered the blue-eyed boy during the Raghubar Das government in the state. But today, he looks like a deserted man in BJP as no leader of Ranchi (state) as well as Dhanbad (home district) has jumped in his support so far.
“One of the state working presidents of Congress Jaleshwar Mahto, who lost the 2019 election in a neck to neck contest, is the arch-rival of Dhulu Mahto. Since Jaleswar Mahto’s party is in power now, he would definitely mount pressure on the police administration for action on the three terms MLA (Dhulu Mahto),” said a BJP leader.
