Dead man walking: Man declared 'deceased' in revenue records files UP poll nominations

A man, who was declared dead in revenue records allegedly on the basis of forged documents presented by his cousins to grab land in his village, has filed his nomination for UP polls to “prove” he is alive and also with an aim to help all “who are dead like me”.

Santosh Murat Singh, the resident of Chitauni village in Chaubeypur police station area of Varanasi, is fighting a legal battle to prove he is “officially alive” and get his name back on his 12.5 acres of ancestral land, which he lost to his cousins.

He claims he lost the land after his cousins got their names enrolled on the property on the basis of forged documents.

Santosh wishes to be the Chief Minister for a day so that he could help all those who are declared dead on land and revenue records on the basis of forged papers and make them “officially alive”.

He wants to help them get their land back.

He filed his nomination papers from the Shivpur assembly seat in Varanasi on Wednesday.

Talking to media persons after filing his nomination papers, he said he filed his nomination papers to prove that he is still alive.

He claimed there are nearly 50,000 people in the state who have been declared dead on records but are alive.

He said he is unsure if his papers would be accepted after the scrutiny in the absence of relevant documents, but he still says “my motive of proving would be fulfilled”.

Earlier also in order to prove that he is alive he had once filed his nominations for the presidential elections, which was rejected by authorities.

Santosh says that upto year 2000, he was living in his village.

It is in that year that actor Nana Patekar came for a shooting in his village and he went to Mumbai with him and even worked as a cook in his house, he claimed.

“When after marrying a Dalit girl from Maharashtra, I returned to my village, the village community refused to accept me saying I had married a girl from a lower caste. I returned to Mumbai again,” he said.

“Later in year 2003, it came to light that my cousins grabbed my 12.5 acres of land in my native village and I was declared officially dead in land and revenue records,” he said, adding “his parents passed away during his childhood”.