Usha Thakur’s bail plea not heard as lawyers on strike

Noida: The bail plea of social activist of Usha Thakur, who has been arrested in connection with the alleged extortion attempt on Union minister Mahesh Sharma, could not be heard on Saturday because of a strike by lawyers.
Lawyers attached to Surajpur court have been observing a strike on Saturdays for the past 30 years to raise a demand for a high court bench for western Uttar Pradesh. The appeal will now be heard only on Monday, which means that the 70-year-old activist will have to spend at least three days in jail.
Usha, who police said had “connived with the accused”, has been booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy).
“The extortion charge against Usha Thakur is a stringent non-bailable section under the IPC. It is unlikely she would get bail easily,” advocate JM Mathur, attached to the court, said.
It was Usha who had introduced Alok Kumar, the owner of the now defunct Pratinidhi channel, to Sharma. She was also present at the meeting between Alok and the minister, which had been recorded stealthily and passed off as a sting. The minister was allegedly asked to pay Rs 2 crore if he did not want the video to be made public.
Usha’s is the fourth arrest in the case. The others arrested are Alok, and his former employees Nisha and Nishu.
Usha was linked with the Noida Lok Manch, a social outfit where minister Sharma is the patron. She had attended an event of the outfit at Vigyan Bhawan on May 22, 2017, marking the 50 years of two books written by award winning poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also participated in the event.
While Sharma had addressed Usha as “an elder sister” and his brother had said they did not name the social activist in their complaint, police have said she had “connived” with the accused in the extortion bid. Usha had earlier denied all the allegations.