Written in December, 2012 - The Shift from Bagaha to Rohtas

The Story of Rohtas

An Insider Account

(Written in December, 2012)

Joining Rohtas from Bagaha

Transport from Himalayan Jungle to the Forests of the Kaimur Ranges

Away from Delhi, in Kolkata while on tour during conducting an investigation, I received a phone call from a number in Bihar. The person on the other side was the son of a renowned politician from Rohtas district of Bihar. I immediately remembered that this was the same person I had sent to jail once in connection with an old case of disruption of law and order. For a while, I became quite defensive and I did not know why had this person called me after more than a year since I had left Rohtas, and had already completed my tenure in another district before moving to Delhi on central deputation. But then as one works as the SP of a district, one does make several contacts, some of which are lost the moment one gets transferred out, while many others remain in touch with whom it is more of a personal relation and mutual sort of admiration. Getting a call from someone after a long time is indeed something that makes one suspicious of the intent, especially when it comes from someone of the type one seems to have harmed. But this call was not the one that I expected from this person,  I was being thanked for something which had begun as a dream. 

The Story of Rohtas has been in the making, and now it has started being felt. The caller was sharing his glee over the arrest of Munna Vishwakarma by the UP Police in Sonebhadra district. I had been informed earlier by a journalist friend from Rohtas of the arrest of a naxal cadre who had a reward of 3 lakh rupees while chatting on Facebook. And now it was a person quite well known otherwise calling and thanking me for the same. He realized that the dream of liberating the Kaimur Hills and Rohtas district from the Maoist influence was now turning into a reality. The next day I was back in Delhi, when I received a call from Sugriv Kharwar, the tribal Kharwar leader who  had faced the brunt of naxal revenge against members of his family, when he had organized a surrender of the Maoist Cadres before the administration. The contents of the talk cannot be shared in all details at present as the situation is still unfolding, but Sugriv was indeed happy to see the end of Naxal influence from the Hills of Kaimur. Sugriv also the founder of Kaimuranchal Vikas Morcha, had been associated with the 'Sone Mahotsava' Project from Day One. He had been in jail for two years in connection with naxal cases against him, but had taken the decision to quit the party, and then in the next step to liberate his ancestral place from the stronghold of the naxals. And perhaps he had reasons to be happy. Just about 4 years back or even till recently none could hope about such a decline in the strength of the Maoists operating from Rohtas.  Perhaps the Rohtas Story worked. The future is always open to deviations, but the course of events in Rohtas have a reason for cheer. In a district which saw two of the Police Stations of Rajpur and Baghela located deep in the plains of Rohtas and away from the naxal stronghold of the Kaimur Hills, being attacked on the same day of 1^st July 2007. Several policemen had been killed and the arms had been looted in an action of the CPI(Maoist) , which was the most planned after the Jehanabad Jail break of November 2005 in Bihar. Earlier in 2006, Sh. Akhileshwar Prasad, the SDPO of Bikramganj was killed during an encounter with the Maoists  very near to the town of Bikramganj.

For a serving IPS officer to write about the success of the work carried out in a district under his policing charge is generally not expected or often done. But being the planner and a regular follower of the events as they have unfolded in the Rohtas district, I would be failing in my duty as a participative observer and worker if I do not compile what has happened in due course.  I have the account of an insider who has been watching the developments as they have unfolded. People associated with it or having a deep knowledge of it can have different interpretations of what happened, but as the initiator of several of the activities, I am in a position to write about what has transpired in the Rohtas Story. What has given results in Rohtas may be of not much use in other places, but the testimony of time in Rohtas has proved its vitality in dealing with the Maoist Problem. Policing with a deep understanding of the historical context and involvement of the community can create wonders. I have seen it happening in Bagaha on the Indo Nepal border and the Rohtas Story has started unfolding in its true colours.

As I joined the district in the month of August 2008, the conditions were worse. The police had still not come out of the fear of Rajpur and Baghela. The DSP incident was also quite fresh in the memory. The police had not visited major areas on the Kaimur Hills for a long time, and several efforts on conducting raids on the Kaimur Hills had resulted in severe losses for the police in terms of lives and the morale.

As I left Bagaha for joining the charge of Rohtas district, I met the Zonal Additional DG of Muzaffarpur , Sh. Krishna Choudhary at his residence, to get the blessings from an oldtimer in the services of Bihar. Discussing about the tasks in Rohtas, he made a mention of the Famous Rohtas Fort. The Rohtas Fort, had almost been forgotten for quite some time, and not many police officers had tried to make it a part of mainstream tourism. After a murder in the 1980’s of a person belonging to the Tilothu family, the Rohtas Fort had remained obscure for general visitors. Visitors did not go to the famous Fort due to the fear of dacoit gangs earlier, and now it was due to the presence of naxals who had reportedly also used the Fort Premises to impart training to newly recruited cadres occasionally. The ADG mentioned that if I could do something which would restore the semblance of Rohtas, it would be great. With these words in mind and with a long cherished dream of seeing the fort in all its majesty, ever since I had worked as the ASP in neighbouring Aurangabad district, I joined Rohtas.

The Bagaha Background

Times spent in the banks of the Narayani

I had the background of having served in Bagaha, often called as mini Chambal due to the presence of several dacoit gangs in the jungles and diaras of the Gandak river. The dacoits of Bagaha had a style of their own, which is rarely seen. I remember that on joining Bagaha I had seen several letters of ransom which had been delivered to the relatives of people kidnapped. The gangs of Champaran did not carry out their activites in disguise. But infact sent letters of ransom with the stamp of their names like ‘Rudal Yadav, Bihar Sarkar’ or ‘Vasudeo Yadav, Bihar Sarkar’. All the gangs of Bagaha had a unique style of suffixing Bihar Sarkar to their names in the stamp or letterheads prepared. Very often the prefix used was ‘Jai Ma Durge’. The gangs had for long ruled in the areas of their influence, and it was funny to see the use of ‘Bihar Sarkar’ as the suffix, which is exclusively used as a suffix by officers of the state Government. But their influence and fear was so strong that they indeed inspired people to call them as such. Several dacoits had been killed in police encounters earlier in Bagaha, but the problem remained. A famous operation called 'Operation Blackpanther' with a large contingent of Police Force had been organized in early 1980’s. The model for tackling the dacoits had more or less remained the same since then. After every major incident by the dacoits, there would be combing operations in the jungle and the diaras. The dacoits would disappear for sometime and then resume their activities. There was no end in sight of a complex symptom. Dacoits had actually become a part of the social set up. The dacoits had their families, they possessed land,they had social relations and also organized social get togethers which were at times attended by the political leaders of the area.

I had joined Bagaha at the time of a crisis. Dacoits of the Rudal and Chumman Yadav gang had killed four farmers in the diara of the Gandak, just across Bagaha town. As their bodies were brought to the Bagaha Subdivision for postmortem examination, there was a general unrest in the crowd which had gathered against the police. It was already getting dark as the crowds swelled. The police which tried to control the situation was under tremendous pressure from the mob which started brickbatting to give fuel to the pent up emotions. The police resorted to firing, in which one died on the spot, and another died later during treatment. To control the crisis, the state government immediately transferred the SP, and ordered me to take charge. The first week in Bagaha had been spent in the company of the IG, Muzaffarpur and the DIG, Bettiah, who had also been ordered to camp in Bagaha till the situation gets normalized. A lot of stories about Bagaha were discussed,along with Ratn Sanjay, who had a very successful tenure as the SP of Bagaha earlier. Bagaha was a small place and a sleepy town. The railway station which was the most preffered point of starting a journey to Bettiah, Muzaffarpur, Patna or Delhi, was like what you’d have read in Malgudi Days. The small beauties of Bagaha were very charming. In the early days as I got acquainted with travelling across the Gandak with the Gypsy being transported on a boat to cross the other side to the diara, the effect had begun. Several marches were carried out in distant pockets of the diara along with a large contingent of forces. At one of these raids, I also met a political leader who had earlier been kidnapped by the dacoit Vasudeo Yadav @ Tiwary, and had ever since been opposing the naxals by forming Gram Raksha Dals. People in the villages of Bagaha either supported the dacoits or opposed them. There were villagers who patrolled their fields with arms to avoid the assault of dacoits. Others provided shelter and information about the movements of the Police. Local officer in-charges who were smart enough also struck deals with the dacoits to not commit crimes in their jurisdiction. The dacoits ran gangs with 40 to 50 supporters and porters. They camped along the remote diaras during police operations, and also hid in the bushes and the vast Sugarcane fields to avoid showing their presence. As time passed during ambushes laid for arresting the Dacoits in the Sugarcane Fields, it was found that a large area of Government Land and also Land captured from farmers who could not afford to farm in the diara due to the influence of dacoits, was being cultivated by dacoits. The illegal cultivation of Sugarcane afforded the gangs with a steady source of income. A total of about 320 acres of land was found being cultivated by the dacoit gangs. 

The Bagaha operation started. A police camp was set up in the Nainaha Reta, which was the stronghold of the dacoit gangs, and frequently used by the ganglord Vasudeo. Vasudeo was the oldest dacoit operating in the area and had crossed 60 already. Still there were local legends about him which were prevalent in the area. People claimed that he could hide himself in water for hours to avoid being caught by the police and similar ones. He was an expert in taking cover. This was also experienced during my tenure when acting on a secret information of his presence in a Flat in Delhi, a raid was carried out on accurate information, but Vasudeo was not found. Later it was revealed that he had hid himself in the water storage tank of the Flat. As the plan began for the cutting of illegally planted Sugarcane by the labourers under the shadow of the police, the message was quite clear. The police meant business and the long time economy of the dacoits was now in the fear of extinction. At the start of the unique operation called ‘Ganna Katai’ in the local parlance, many challenges were faced. Local labourers were not ready to participate in the operation because they feared for their lives in even touching the sugarcane planted by the dacoits. The fields of the dacoits had the best crop and were distinct from the weaker fields surrounding them. The dacoits extracted free labour from the villagers to cut the cane and to send it to the mill for payment on fake names. But the same labourers who used to work free for the dacoits were not willing to support the police despite their poverty and despite being promised the minimum wages as per government rules. It must be remarked that the fixed minimum wage of the government was much higher than what they earned actually while working on a daily basis for private farmers. To start with, the labourers were transported from a different area of the district who were away from the local dacoit’s influence, and were made to stay in a secured camp. They cut the cane during daytime, watched Ramayana on VCD Player specially made available so that they did not lose their interest, during the night and feasted on the provisions provided by the police.  Gradually the local labourers also joined seeing the advantages of the exercise and challenged by the difference it made to their poverty. The ‘Ganna Katai’ in early 2007 continued for about two months and made a dent in the morale of the dacoit gangs. With every illegal field being cut and the proceeds being delivered in the government treasury, the confidence of the terrified villages started soaring. The areas which had been the exclusive recluse of the dacoits were seeing a new revolution. Along with the assault on their cane, their boats and other means of making money were also targeted. The relatives of the dacoits were being counseled for making their leaders surrender, as there was no hope. The surrender policy of the Government was promoted by means of newspapers, and most of all by word of mouth in the sleepy district which was going through an unexpected change. Every successive day, more reports used to come from the field in the newspapers, with the news papers adding their own spice to it.  

In March 2007 the first surrender of dacoit Awadhesh Yadav was organized very near to his village. He had the status of a local clan leader in his area, but was feared in other places. The Police Station of Bathuaria was very near to his house, but he had been evading arrest for years. When he surrendered with arms in a function attended by a large crowd, the seeds of change had been sown. It was soon followed by the surrender of Mantu Tiwari and Sethai Yadav in May 2007 in Ramnagar. Sethai Yadav was the brother of the famous dacoit Musafir Yadav who carried a reward of Two Lakh on his head. During the same time a change was also happening in the naxal affected areas of the Police district. Families of the Maoists had been approached during visits to the remote areas in the Forests of Bagaha where they had been active. A sympathetic and understanding police was interacting with them, and strict instructions had been delivered to all the officers-in-charge of Police Stations to ensure that no innocent villager should be troubled by the police without evidence. The move worked and eight villager who were wanted in naxal cases decided to surrender. They were asked to surrender their arms, but they claimed that their arms had been taken by the naxals when they left the party. They were told that it would be difficult to get Government Support if they do not surrender the arms, but they looked so innocent and spoke the truth. The whole village had motivated them to surrender for the peace of the area. The trinity of the Maoist movement had been Osho, Dwarika Mahto and Rajinder Master. Osho had been arrested recently and was in jail. Dwarika’s family was being approached for his surrender, while Rajinder Master, and oldtimer who was the main preacher was arrested along with his girlfriend Zarina Begum of Kala Barwa Village in June 2007. The Maoist menace in Bagaha had thus been largely controlled by frequent pressure of the police following a two pronged strategy of area domination and community policing. I enjoyed interacting with the families of the Maoists, as the visits allowed me good views and adventures in the dense jungles of Champaran, also opportunities to spot the Tiger and other wildlife in the Tiger Project. 

The major turning point occurred when the money promised under the rehabilitation package was released by the government. In the month of June 2007, the eight naxal families were each given cheques of Rs. 1 Lakh and 19 thousand rupees in a well attended function organized at Harnatar. The sincerity of the police in making available funds for the rehabilitation was thus proved. The DM of West Champaran had been called to preside over the function inorder to get the administrative support for the rehabilitation, and it worked. After the kidnapping of Mumbai Filmmaker Piyush Kothari by the Gandak Gangs of Bhagar Yadav and Suresh Yadav near the border of the diara in Gopalganj district, there had been no kidnapping for ransom incident for quite some time. But the dacoit gang of Rajender Choudhary struck this time in the month of May 2007 in a village in Bhairoganj Police Station, and picked up two old farmers. On visiting the site and seeing the pitiable situation of the family, I was struck by the choice of the victims. The two old men were protecting their fields at the night when they were carried away by some dacoit gang towards the jungle. The jungle party had captured its first victims six months after my work had started in Bagaha. People who had otherwise been talking of the prevailing peace had now started talking that the condfidence of the gangs was now again rising. A challenge had been posed before the Bagaha Police. The police responded by the way of intensive raids in the jungles and in the diara. After some days of tireless efforts, one of the men appeared. He claimed to have run away from the captivity. After about 3 days the other man was also discovered. It was not clear as to what led to their release. The two did not divulge much information to the police. Several rumours were current. 

It must be remembered that apart from collecting ransom at just one time, the dacoits were generous enough to offer the facility of instalments for their victims, who complied. The list of ransom sent in several cases gave interesting facts about the social status of the dacoits. In one particular list on the letterhead of one Bihar Sarkar, the gang had asked for a ransom of 5000 rupees, it had also asked for items like Nirma Soap, Cooking Oil, a Goat (Khassi), and the funniest of all, for 19 Chand Brand Lungis. The Lungis of a particular brand , the Chand Mark, were preferred by the dacoits. I later discovered that this was believed to be one of the most comfortable brands. After a stint as the City SP of Patna for about a year, where the gangs used to operate using mobile phones for asking ransom, this way of asking for ransom on letterheads with the stamps of ‘Bihar Sarkar’ were unique indeed. 

At about the same time a major political crisis had followed the arrest of the Honourable legislative assembly member from Bagaha. The matter was finally resolved by the intervention of the Honourable CM. The issue was put to rest. The CM was of the view that the public had given a mandate for the change of Bihar. As per the newspapers the CM was also of the view that the SP of Bagaha was doing a good job and was effectively breaking the police-dacoit nexus in Bagaha.

The message helped. Dacoits of the area now knew that the State Government wanted a change in the situation in Bagaha. The old ways had to change. The dacoits were on the run due to sustained police operations against their activities. They could see not much hope except in the way of surrender before the Government. This sentiment was promoted more by way of the word of mouth and counseling of the family members of the dacoits. For a period of four months from August to November, I was out of Bagaha attending a Training Course at Mussoorie. The work restarted in December 2007. I had been expecting a change midway between the training course. But I was mistaken. I returned with my luggage which had been packed earlier expecting atransfer, after 4 months to Bagaha in December 2007, for the next phase. The Ganna Katai campaign was continued to fell the Sugarcane which had grown on its own in the illegally cultivated lands. Land reclaimed from the dacoits was distributed between landless farmers by the District Administration. So a set of claimants had been created on the Government Lands in the diara. The economics of crime took a severe beating. Surrender was the talk of the diara. Rudal Yadav had called me from his hiding place in Nepal in the previous year, requesting for sparing his cultivated lands of Sugarcane. But nothing was spared. The crops of Rudal Yadav in his lands in UP were also destroyed when they could not be cut. He had earlier promised not to commit crime during my tenure if his crops were spared. But they had not been spared. And his gang struck. In the last week of December 2007, a boy was lifted from his village falling under Bagaha Police Station. The cycle seemed to be repeating itself. 

Several Raids were conducted in the jungles and in the diaras to recover the kidnapped child. But it was proving to be futile, when suddenly one fine day when it was quite cold, one informer came with the vital clue. The gang of Rudal Yadav had been camping in a diara area of UP just across the border of Bihar. A police team under SI Sheomuni Prasad had been sent to follow the trail when they met in an encounter. The child was recovered. Two dacoits were killed in the encounter, while four others fled taking advantage of the cover provided by the dense sugarcane fields. A cordon was placed during the night to catch the dacoits who were presumed to be hiding in the dense sugarcane, but they somehow managed to escape. The gang of Rudal Yadav was shattered, and two of his main kingpins were no more. The confidence of the public was restored, and surrender became the preferred option for most of the gangs operating in the diaras of Champaran. The gangs of Ramakant Yadav and Ranglal Yadav surrendered in March 2008 in front of a very large crowd. The final moment of glory was the surrender of the dreaded Vasudeo Yadav in May 2008, before a large crowd which had gathered to see him in front of the SP’s office in Bagaha. It was covered live by ETV, Bihar. Vasudeo Yadav was believed to be the pillar of the crime in Bagaha, and he had fallen. He had more than 100 cases to be tried for at the time of his arrest and carried a reward of Two Lakh Rupees. He was also wanted for a massacre in Marchahwa. Later Asharfi Yadav also surrendered. The money received from the Government for the rehabilitation of the dacoits was immediately released, and it led to confidence in the claims of the Police Leadership. 

At the time of my transfer from Bagaha, five more dacoits were willing for surrender, and several others were sending their representatives for talks about the modalities and doubts. The five surrendered before my successor SP immediately after his joining, and some others surrendered later. Neighbouring Bettiah district also saw the wave of surrender which had started from Bagaha. After a few surrenders, the main gang leader Bhagar Yadav, who had been a terror for a long time surrendered. There was no case of kidnapping reported till August in 2008, which clearly demonstrated the change. Bagaha today has changed. Kidnappings are no longer the type of crime in Bagaha. The self styled Bihar Sarkar’s are no longer to be seen. They remain in the memory of the people. Some are in jail, while others are now leading peaceful lives by lawful means. 

The Experiments in Rohtas 

Reliving the Ways of Bagaha

Thus with the bubbling inspirations gathered from Bagaha, and a flair of movements and operations in the jungles, I landed in Rohtas. The terrain of Bagaha had been very difficult but there had been no incident of any landmine blast by Maoists so far. This afforded confidence to the Police to move freely in the most remote and desolate areas of the district. On the contrary Rohtas had proved to be a killing field for the police who ventured out against the Maoists. The morale of the forces had shaken terribly after the incidents at Dabua More in Nauhatta PS, and recent incidents of loot and murder at Rajpur and Baghela Police Stations. With a new leader at the helm, the forces were also looking for change. They needed leadership and were ready to take risks to control the Maoist Menace. 

Continued... 

(PS : All views expressed are strictly personal)