UP Land mafia Brijesh Awasthi dies of heart attack in Basti jail

    Basti (UP), Jun 25 (PTI) Advocate Brijesh Awasthi, a notorious land mafia figure lodged in the Basti district jail in Uttar Pradesh, died of a heart attack on Wednesday morning, officials said.
    He was facing over 43 serious criminal cases, including those of land grabbing, fraud, and intimidation, according to officials.
    Officials said Awasthi experienced intense chest pain and sweating early in the morning. After half-an-hour of initial treatment in the jail hospital, doctors advised immediate transfer. He was taken to the district hospital around 7 am, where he passed away at around 10.30 am during treatment.
    Basti Jail Superintendent SP Mishra said that Awasthi complained of chest pain in the morning, and he was immediately taken to the jail hospital, from where the doctors referred him to the district hospital. He died during treatment there and his body has been sent for post-mortem, he added.
    According to a jail official, Awasthi had been transferred from Gonda to Basti jail on December 15, 2024, as part of an administrative decision to separate him from his two associates - Anil Singh and Rakesh Tripathi.
    All three were previously lodged in Gonda's divisional jail before being shifted to different jails --” Awasthi to Basti, Singh to Bahraich, and Tripathi to Balrampur, the official said.
    Awasthi, a resident of Gonda and a practising lawyer, was allegedly the kingpin of a large racket involved in creating fake property sale deeds. He was accused of misusing his legal position to defraud clients and forcibly take over lands by implicating victims in cases of molestation and sexual assault, thereby coercing them to transfer property to him or his relatives.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)