(the above image is from Mail Today)
Mail Today, 9 July 2011
BUTCHER of Bihar walks free
Brahmeshwar Singh, founder of , gets bail in last of the 22 cases
ONE of the most dreaded criminals in Bihar’s history, the man whose name sent a chill down the spine of the poorest of the poor in the state, the landlord who has the blood of 277 persons on his hands, walked a free man on Friday.
Brahmeshwar Singh alias Mukhiyaji , founder of Ranvir Sena — the most brutal private militia in the state’s history, was released from the Ara jail after a local court in Jehanabad district allowed his bail plea.
Singh, who was accused javascript:void(0)in 22 criminal cases, including massacres involving the killing of 277 persons across the state, got bail after spending nine years in different jails since his dramatic arrest in Patna in 2002.
Singh, in his sixties, was charged with having masterminded all the massacres executed by the Ranvir Sena which he had founded in 1994 to counter the ultraleft organisations. Ara jail officials said Singh was released from jail on Friday morning after Jehanabad judicial magistrate Dipak Kumar granted his plea for bail in an arms Act case — the last case in which his bail plea was pending.
Singh’s family members said that he had been acquitted in 16 out of the 22 cases and granted bail in six other cases pending against him. According to police sources, the Ranvir Sena founder now had six cases pending against him, including one case of murder, one of recovery of a mobile phone from his prison cell and three cases under arms Act. Among the various massacres he has allegedly engineered, the Bathani Tola case is still pending.
Singh came out of prison to a hero’s welcome with a large number of supporters waiting for him outside the Ara jail. He was garlanded by his slogan- shouting supporters to express their joy.
Singh said he was innocent and not involved in any of the massacres.
“ I am innocent and I have full faith in the judiciary,” he said.
Singh had been arrested by the Patna police from the Exhibition Road locality of the state capital in August 2002. He was accused of masterminding several massascres that took place in the state between 1995 and 2000, including the Laxmanpur- Bathe carnage in which 58 persons, mostly women and children from the underprivileged sections of society, were killed on December 1, 1997.
Sources said that the prosecution could not prove the charges against Singh for want of evidence.
Several witnesses against Singh also turned hostile during the trial.
In April last year, a Bihar court had sentenced 16 persons to death and awarded life imprisonment to ten others in the Laxmanpur- Bathe case. But Singh, who was one of the accused, escaped punishment as he was declared absconder in spite of the fact that he has been languishing in Ara jail in connection with other cases.
AFTER the investigation, the Jehanadbad police had named Singh as one of the 48 accused in their chargesheet on February 27, 1998, and declared him an absconder. But the prosecution had apparently remained unaware of his arrest in Patna in 2002. As a result, there was no trial against him. In May last year, a court also sentenced three persons to death and 20 others to life imprisonment in connection with the killing of 21 people, mostly children and women, at Bathani Tola in the Bhojpur district of the state 15 years ago. Singh was also among the non-FIR accused, and had been declared an absconder in the case. Singh was remanded in the case on May 6, 2003 but the trial against him could not proceed because the police could not produce the records against him.
On April 19, 2010, the special public prosecutor filed a petition in the court for committing the case against Singh. Reacting to Singh’s release on bail, Bihar’s deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi blamed the RJD for the growth of the Ranvir Sena and the ultra-left organisations. “The Ranvir Sena grew because of the patronage the organisation received from the erstwhile RJD government,” Modi said.
RISE & FALL OF A BRUTAL FORCE
The Ranvir Sena targeted the landless labourers and their Naxal sympathisers for over eight years
ORIGIN
The Ranvir Sena was formed in 1994 by feudal forces to take on the ultra-left organisations such as the CPI (ML) Liberation, Party Unity and MCCI, which were championing the rights of the poor and landless peasants
GENESIS
The rapid spread of the Naxal movement in central and southern Bihar since 1980s and its growing popularity among the farm labourers, who mostly worked in the fields of prosperous farmers, was a matter of growing concern for the upper caste landlords in the state. Under the leadership of Brahemshwar Singh aka Mukhiyaji, the Sena evolved into an armed outfit
AREAS OF INFLUENCE
Ranvir Sena had its cadre in many districts such as Bhojpur, Jehanabad, Gaya, Aurangabad and at various places in central Bihar
ZENITH
The violence unleashed by the militia reached its climax at the Laxmanpur- bathe village where its activists butchered 58 people. It is said to have masterminded at least 29 different carnages in different districts of central and south Bihar between 1995 and 2000
BODY BLOW
The dramatic arrest of Mukhiyajiby Patna police in 2002 dealt a severe blow to the Sena operations
POLITICS
Sena was not the first of its kind in Bihar. It was basically an offshoot of organisations such as the Savarna liberation Army, Sunlight Sena, Brahmarshi Sena and Kuer Sena, which were floated by the Bhumihar and Rajput leaders in the state. Its founders had believed that the Maoists’s war against them could be tackled only through armed rebellion. The Sena was organised with an unflinching backing of the local landlords
NADIR
After the arrest of Mukhiyaji, the Sena activists retreated into the background due to lack of leadership and became almost defunct
MAJOR MASSACRES EXECUTED BY RANVIR SENA
KHOPIRA, BHOJPUR DISTRICT It was at the ancestral village of Ranvir sena founder Brahmeshwar Singh aka Mukhiyaji that the outlawed militia of the upper caste landlords first struck, killing three scheduled caste agricultural workers in 1995 Sarthua (Bhojpur): The Sena members killed six farm labourers belonging to the scheduled castes in 1995.
BATHANI TOLA, BHOJPUR In one of its daring strikes, Ranvir Sena men killed 22 agricultural workers belonging to the scheduled caste and Muslim communities in 1996
LAXMANPUR-BATHE, JEHANABAD In its bloodiest strike in 1997, armed militia of the Ranvir Sena struck Laxmanpur- Bathe village and gunned down 58 people belonging to scheduled castes
HAIBASPUR, PATNA Ten more farm labourers belonging to scheduled castes fell to the bullets of Ranvir Sena members in 1997
EKWARI, BHOJPUR Ranvir Sena attacked this village in 1997 killing ten persons belonging to the scheduled caste
NAGRI, BHOJPUR Ten scheduled caste farm workers killed by Sena in 1998
SENDANI, GAYA Sena massacred 12 poor people in 1999
NARAYANPUR, JEHANABAD Eleven persons belonging to the backward communities were killed in an attack in 1999
SHANKARBIGHA, JEHANABAD Ranvir Sena cadre struck in the district again in 1999 and killed 23 people in this village
MIANPUR, AURANGABAD The private army of the upper castes killed 35 members of the backward and scheduled castes communities in this village
o o o
He took up gun to avenge a failed plea for a light
By Giridhar Jha in Patna
A FRAIL looking man walked out the Ara jail in Bihar on Friday. Surrounded by some of his friends, betrayed no emotions for a man who has engineered the most brutal chapters of violence in Bihar.
Brahmeshwar Singh alias Mukhiyaji , founder of the outlawed Ranvir Sena and the architect of 29 massacres – which 277 lower caste farm labourers and poor Muslims were killed — looked a composed man, unrepentant.
The landlord from the Bhojpur district of Bihar raised an armed militia wipe out any resistance whatsoever the feudal lords and counter the spread of the ultra- left extremism. And it started with a cigarette.
A young upper caste youth was assaulted by some scheduled caste men when he asked them for a light.
Singh took it a bit too personally.
Friends of Singh belonging to his Bhumihar caste claim that he organised the members of his community at his native place, Khopira, and the adjoining villages to set up the Ranvir Sena, to avenge the assault.
The next eight years since he founded Ranvir Sena in 1994, Singh remained the most wanted man in Bihar and carried a cash reward of ` 5 lakh on his head. It was in August 2002 that the elusive mastermind behind the most well organised and brutal private militia was caught following a raid on an Exhibition Road building in central Patna.
Such was the legend about him, that till his arrest very few people knew how he looked like.
In fact, most of them were surprised to find a frail “ schoolteacher- like” man in his early fifties in police custody. But then, Singh had always kept a low profile even while his Sena was on the rampage executing one massacre after another in south and central Bihar districts such as Bhojpur, Gaya, Aurangabad, Arwal, Jehanabad and Patna.
People from the scheduled caste and other backward communities were the prime targets but it also did not spare those who were believed to be sympathisers of the Naxal outfits. Singh had initially assumed the leadership of Ranvir Kisan Sangharsh Samiti from Sheo Narain Choudhary, the mukhiya of Belaur village, in 1994.
The outfit had been set up to counter the CPI ( ML) Liberation’s move to impose an economic blockade on the peasants of Bhojpur district.
But it was Singh who soon turned it into a militant outfit which was named after a former armyman from the area, Ranvir, who had become an icon for those fighting for the rights of the upper castes during the British Raj.
Ranvir Sena continued to take on the ultra- left outfits, which claimed to champion the cause the landless or poor farmers, but with Singh’s arrest nine years ago, it ceased to wield the power that it had the area.
Singh, who holds post- graduate degree Political Science from Patna University, took on the mantle of mukhiyaji very early his life. Singh, a prosperous farmer owning 100 bighas of land, two houses and a car, was himself the target Naxal outfits. The rebels used to raid his properties and people close him claim that it was another reason why Singh took up arms.
After his arrest Patna, he had said that he did not repent the massacres because they were retaliatory nature. In fact, he also took pride in the fact that he had not surrendered but had been arrested by the police. After his release on Friday, he said that he had full faith the judiciary and he had no involvement in any the massacres.
o o o
Born out of the conflict between haves & have- nots
By Giridhar Jha in Patna
RANVIR Sena, the dreaded upper caste militia from Bihar, was formed way back in 1994 by the feudal forces to take on the ultra- left organisations such as the CPI ( ML) Liberation, Party Unity and the MCCI, which were championing the rights of the poor, landless peasants belonging to the underprivileged sections of society.
The rapid spread of Naxal movement in central and south Bihar since 1980s and its growing popularity among the farm labourers, who mostly worked in the fields of prosperous farmers, was a matter of growing concern for the upper caste landlords in the state.
It was the influential landlords, mostly belonging to Bhumihar caste, who backed the private militia to the hilt in its fight against the Naxalites.
The organisation evolved into an armed outfit under the leadership of Brahemshwar Singh aka Mukhiyaji, himself a landlord from Bhojpur district, who tried to unite the upper caste landlords under the Sena umbrella.
The Sena went on to attack the villages of the scheduled castes and killed more than 277 persons, including women and children, belonging to the poorest of the poor sections of society, in various carnages. The Lalu Prasad government banned the Sena in July 1995 but the outfit continued to inflict atrocities on the poor people on the suspicion of helping Naxals.
The Sena is said to have masterminded at least 29 carnages in different districts of central and south Bihar between 1995 and 2000. It was only after the dramatic arrest of Mukhiya ji by the Patna police in 2002 that dealt body blow to the Sena.
But Ranvir Sena was not the first private armies raised by the upper castes. It followed in the footsteps organisations such as Savarna liberation Army, Sunlight Sena, Brahmarshi Sena, Kuer Sena and Kisan Morcha all floated by the Bhumihar and Rajput leaders in the state. But Ranvir Sena had a wider influence on many districts such as Bhojpur, Jehanabad, Gaya, Aurangabad in central Bihar.
Ranvir Sena was organised and exercised influence on the majority of the local landlords. But in name of protecting the rights of landlords, it massacred innocent women and children whose only fault was that they belonged to the poorest sections of society with no land their own to till.
