Santosh Murat Singh

Santosh Murat Singh is a resident of Cholapur, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. he is a protester who was declared dead 20 years ago by his relatives.[2] His father was in the army. In 1988 the father died and in 1995 the mother was also no more in the world. In the year 2000, Nana Patekar came from Mumbai to shoot for the film Aanch.[3]

Santosh worked as a cook for Nana Patekar, he claims that his relatives declared him dead and sold his property after he married with lower caste girl.[4]

Santosh Murat Singh has been walking dead on paper for 20 years. Santosh is giving proof of his existence to the administration from last 20 years but no one is even ready to accept him as alive, he has been walking with a placard of 'I am alive' around in his neck.[5] In Bollywood movie Jolly LLB 2. His screenplay-like story is that of Santosh Murat Singh. In this an elderly person named Sitaram is declared dead on paper and he reaches the court demanding proof of his existence. There, Sitaram tries to consume poison in front of the judge, but the judge sends him to police custody, after this his name gets recorded in the police records.[3] He nominated in Presidential elections in 2012, Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi seat in 2014 and 2019 but his nomination was rejected.[6] and still he could not be declared alive, he died in the 2003 train bombings in Mumbai. Santosh says that his relatives sold his 12 and a half acres of land to someone else after getting his death certificate made in a fake manner.

Salman Khan Production's and Pankaj Tripathi's starrer film Kaagaz is also based on his real life.[7][8] On 4 February 2022, he again filed the nomination for Maharajpur, Uttar Pradesh Assembly seat to prove his existence but his enrollment was rejected due to lack of mandatory requirements. And then he started the protest and claimed that his nomination was rejected for wrong reasons.[9] After 2003 serial blast in Mumbai, he has been trying to prove himself alive. Santosh claimed that after the intervention of Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in the matter, FIR was registered against the land grabbers, but no action has been taken till now.[10]