* Slay At Sight* *The lynching of 10 alleged thieves in Vaishali is not just about vigilantism. It's also a tale of police savagery, finds **ANAND ST DAS**, reporting from North Bihar*
TEHELKA http://tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=Ne290907SLAY.asp A visitor to Dhelpurwa village in Bihar's Vaishali district would perhaps consider himself justified in thinking that this hamlet -- poised as it is at a vibrant juncture between an ever-expanding urbanisation and an unchanging rural ethos -- could be one of the few progressive rural spots in Nitish Kumar's 'New Bihar'. The village exudes a serenity that belies the fact that this was where 10 alleged thieves were brutally lynched in the early hours of September 13, allegedly by the villagers. The 10 victims whom the mob bludgeoned to death belonged to a nomadic Scheduled Caste (SC) community. With their murder, Dhelpurwa, under Rajapakar police station, became yet another infamous reference point in the long list of brutal atrocities against Dalits in the state. Despite the government's tall claims, the incident has underlined the people's increasing lack of faith in the police. The other fact that has received brutal highlight is that Dalits are still at the mercy of people further up than they are in the caste hierarchy. In the aftermath, Nitish Kumar's NDA government has been left fumbling for explanations. A series of suspension and transfer orders have been issued against the cops on duty; ways are being devised to contain the increasing frequency of lynchings in the state. Yet the Dhelpurwa horror and the police's heartless attempts at a cover-up have placed the crime at the centre of a fast-building political crossfire. In Dhelpurwa, many of its residents are proud to admit, though only in private, that they thrashed the men they caught with bricks and bamboo sticks until they died. They say they took the law into their own hands because the Rajapakar police station had been ignoring the area's frequent incidents of theft for too long. Despite three burglaries in a fortnight, no patrolling was initiated in the area, even though the villagers urged officer-in- charge Vibha Kumari to do so several times. Frustrated, the villagers had started community patrolling two weeks ago. According to them, their anger at the police indifference and a massive surge of vigilantism at the sight of the "pack of thieves" was what propelled them into gang murder. "Our intention was not to kill any thief, though all of us tried to vent our frustration and anger. The killings were not planned, but there seemed no other way than beating up these people. After all, they have been a continuing harassment to us," a middle-aged villager from the Yadav community told TEHELKA. In justification, the villagers claim a long-standing helplessness, caught between a police force that had no care for their troubles and bands of thieves and petty criminals that had no fear of the police. "Incidents of theft have been reported in the past from that area. We have received complaints that the local police had taken no action," said Bihar's ADG (Law & Order) Abhayanand. What remains shocking about the role of the police and brings their intentions under suspicion is their failure to prevent the massacre even though doing so appears to have been very easy. The well-staffed Rajapakar police station is just two km from Dhelpurwa Chowk, the site of the massacre. Further, the killing of 10 men by a lynch mob was by no means a silent affair. It would have been easy for the police to have prevented the deaths if they had wanted to. But several villagers, who would not admit to having witnessed the lynching, told TEHELKA that the police reached the spot two hours after the victims died. This, however, is directly contradicted by the sole survivor of the lynchings, Ranjit Kureri, presently recuperating at a Patna hospital. The FIR (no. 138/07) registered on the basis of information provided by the chowkidar gives ample clues about the way the Rajapakar police functions. The chowkidar is a local man and can hence be assumed to know most of the villagers. His statement extended into three pages -- despite this, charges were brought against only a "mob of villagers", with no names mentioned. The FIR, however, specifically named villagers in whose fields and near whose houses the bodies were seen lying in pools of blood. Even though the 10 deceased were Dalits, no section of the Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes Act was invoked in the FIR. Besides, there is no answer as to why the FIR had to be registered on the basis of a chowkidar's statement when officer-in- charge Vibha Kumari told TEHELKA that she visited the scene of the crime as early as 5.45am. Kumari, who was suspended along with her Hajipur counterpart three days later, had no answers. An angry Nitish Kumar also transferred Vaishali SP Anupama Nilekar and DM Lallan Singh the same day. The Government has subsequently ordered a CID probe into the lynchings. But what remains perplexing, if not shocking, is that for the two crucial days after the carnage, investigations revolved obsessively around the theft and not the murders. The entire process that followed was centred on ascertaining whether the money and articles alleged to have been stolen from the village were actually stolen and how much was stolen -- not who were the people who killed the 10 thieves. Even though several people were at their homes near the scene of the crime, the investigating team made no effort to speak to them and find out what happened. Or even to inquire if policemen were present during the massacre (as a few frightened villagers told TEHELKA they were). Additional Director General of Police (CID) Yashwant Malhotra, who accompanied the forensic experts, was least inclined to answer these questions. "We are doing our job. We are looking at all possible angles," was all he had to say. The same words have been used by most Home department officials when asked about Dhelpurwa and the many suspicions its gruesome crime has raised. Amid national condemnation, the Bihar government has now mounted efforts to cleanse the image of its police. A string of lynchings have been reported from various parts of the state over the past few months. In most, both the people and the cops have joined hands to punish petty criminals. After the Dhelpurwa lynching, CM Nitish Kumar at last admitted that "incidents of crime have increased and the police are not paying attention". He also said his government would examine whether street justice was a trend or was confined to a few stray incidents. The government has now decided to launch a mass campaign to ask people not to take the law into their own hands and to hand over criminals to the police instead. As a further measure against lynching, the government will now impose a minimum fine of Rs 5,000 on the people of areas where such incidents take place. With growing suspicion about the collusion of the police in incidents of this nature, the government will also be instructing the CID to keep an eye on the activities of all district SPs in the state. At a recent 'Janata ka Durbar' at his residence, Nitish received about 1,600 complaints against police officers in the state. Opposition parties in the state are readying to strengthen their attack on the Nitish government. The most outspoken has been, understandably, the RJD. "Law and order has collapsed completely in Bihar. The CM should resign on moral grounds after this incident," RJD supremo and Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav said in Delhi. Lok Janshakti Party chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has been equally scathing in his attack. The crossfire has just started. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality." - Dr BR Ambedkar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
