Mafia dons from Uttar Pradesh alive on Facebook

Lucknow: Mafia dons from Uttar Pradesh — both slain and jailed — are ‘active’ on social networking sites, mainly Facebook. The slain dons are being kept ‘alive’ by their friends and supporters who keep connecting with the people through the social networking sites and revive memories from time to time.

Jailed dons are also active on Facebook though they insist that it is their sons/nephews who manage their pages because the people from their constituency want to remain connected.

Virendra Pratap Shahi, the erstwhile don from Gorakhpur who is said to have built the city into the crime capital of north India in the 70s and 80s, was shot dead in 1997 in Lucknow.

His Facebook page cover photo screams ‘Bahu Bali’ and greetings on various festivals are extended to his supporters on his behalf. Eighteen years after his death, his page has managed 520 likes and over 3,300 friends.

Another slain don on Facebook is Shri Prakash Shukla who was one of the most dreaded gangsters in the history of Uttar Pradesh. Shukla’s activities in the underworld had led to the creation of the Special Task Force in Uttar Pradesh in 1998 and in the same year, the gangster was shot dead by STF in Ghaziabad.

His Facebook page is names as ‘Shri Prakash Shukla Don’ and has a cover photo that was published in a newspaper and was taken from police records.

For some strange reasons — either for a lack of knowledge of English or as a deliberate move — the people managing the FB page make it seem that the don is ‘alive’.

He is said to have started studying in January 2015, got into a relationship in January 2015 and also got married in January 2015. The significance of January 2015 is not yet known.

He is introduced as ‘Leader of Gangster Group (GG2) and the lone post on his FB wall says, “I am a gangster and gangsters don’t ask questions. Every human being has a bit of gangster in him”.

Another don who recently made his debut on the social networking site is Brijesh Don, who was arrested from Odisha in 2008 and is presently lodged in Varanasi jail. Recently he was elected member of the UP legislative council. His Facebook page has 1,895 followers and 4969 friends and is managed by his nephew Sushil Singh, also an MLA.