RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM: Practising yoga has proved to help many in the healing of ailments. However, in the case of Pratap Singh, an accused in over 100 cases of robberies and murders, the discipline has helped him reform his life.
A native of Fitodgarh village in Uttrakhand, Singh was recently released from the Rajamahendravaram Central Jail. He was an undertrial in the triple murder case at Pinakadimi in Eluru district.Now 50, he says he has spent most of his life in Tihar, Ghaziabad and Rajamahendravaram jails. A chance encounter with Patanjali Srinivas, a yoga guru in the city, changed his life.
“I have cut all ties with my past life and am looking for a respectable job,” he told TNIE. “I am planning to shift to Andhra Pradesh, if I get a job as a yoga instructor in a school. I have four children and wife. I will work hard and lead a moral life,” Singh asserted.
He met Patanjali Srinivas during daily yoga sessions. “I used to practise asanas on my own as yoga brought me relief. I don’t know how but, the way I thought began to change. No planning, no scheming. All negative thoughts had vanished,” Singh recalled.
Singh was born into a rich family. His father and brother were in the Army. He, too, wanted to serve the country, but life had other plans for him. He was affected with polio and was taken care by his stepmother after the death of his biological mother.
I was 18 when I committed the first crime, says Pratap Singh
“She (stepmother) would torture me every day. I became an emotionless human. I neither had value for my life nor for others,” he confessed. He left home as a teenager and reached Delhi, where he slowly came into contact with local gangs. The underworld taught him sharpshooting.
Singh was 18, when he committed the first crime. Following this, he began taking ‘assignments’ for robberies, kidnaps and murders. At one point, he says, people were scared of entering Kalyanpur due to robberies.
Eventually, Singh came to be known as the ‘go-to’ man for planning and executing grave offences. Once he accepted a contract (supari), it meant the job was done. “I was lodged in Rajamahendravaram jail for seven years. It was excellent in comparison to Tihar and other jails in North India. Felt like living in a hostel,” Singh recalled.
During this period, he attended the yoga sessions conducted by Pranava Sankalpa Samiti in 2017. The organisation had selected 30 prisoners, who had cleared an educational qualification above Class X. But, Pratap, a Class VI dropout, insisted on attending the classes. The trainers and the jail authorities conceded his request.
Recently, Rajamahendravaram Municipal Commissioner K Dinesh Kumar felicitated Singh on the occasion of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. The civic body chief lauded Singh for his transformation.
Patanjali Srinivas pointed out that yoga can transform an individual mentally and physically. It can help with maintaining good health, cure chronicle diseases and mental ailments.
“Pratap Singh and I are going to participate in a yoga conference to be held at Bengaluru next month. Pranava Sankalpa Yoga Samiti has given a new lease of life to prisoners,” he noted. As a part time job, Singh teaches yoga at Sanjay Park in Delhi and also conducts online classes.