Dhananjay Singh is an Indian politician and a gangster who served as a two times MLA and a Member of Parliament from Jaunpur district, Uttar Pradesh.^[1] In March 2024, he was sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping and extortion.^[2]

Dhananjay Singh was born in Jaunpur on 16 July 1975 in a Chandel Rajput family. According to the Lok Sabha, he is also involved in business and farming.^[3]

Singh married his first wife, Meenu, on 12 December 2006. She died ten months later on 12 September 2007. Family members claimed that she committed suicide.^[4][5] He married his second wife, Dr. Jagriti Singh, on 29 June 2009.^[6] After mutual disagreement, they separated and he married his third wife, Srikala Reddy, a BJP politician, in 2017.^[7][8] She won the Jaunpur zila panchayat (district council) chairperson poll in July 2021.^[9]

Dhananjay Singh first became known as a student activist when he attended Tilak Dhari (TD) College in Jaunpur.^[9] In the late 1990s, he studied at Lucknow University and graduated with a master's in political science, and also started gaining notoriety around this time for his involvement in gang activity.^[3][10] His opposition to the Mandal Commission recommendations increased his political popularity.^[9] Between 1996 and 2013, Singh had been charged four times under the Gangster Act.^[11]

In October 1998, it was claimed by police that they killed Singh in an encounter in Bhadohi while he was robbing a petrol pump. However, he appeared in public alive four months later, leading to an investigation that filed cases on up to 34 officers for the false claim.^[9]

In 2002 he was elected as MLA from Rari now Malhani constituency, Jaunpur district in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 2002 to 2009 as an independent candidate. In 2007, he was again elected as an MLA from the aforesaid constituency on the Janta Dal (United) ticket. In 2009 Indian General Elections, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) in the 15th Lok Sabha as a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member.

Up to 2024, Singh has 41 criminal cases to his record, with ten still pending and others being dismissed or acquired, partially due to witnesses who later backed out.^[9][2]