*The Myth of Vigilante Justice in **Bihar***
We at the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic
Tribes are seriously concerned about 10 members of a nomadic community
Kureri being beaten to death by villagers, and then at the recent news
coverage of the Vaishali incident in the national media. The press coverage
of the event in the national, and even the international English media has
been dangerously misleading. If not challenged, such coverage can form the
basis in the public domain for atleast partial justification for this and
similar barbarous events. Hence we feel it is very important to counter
those accounts with some facts.
A team comprising of the Chairman, Member and the Director (Research) of the
Commission visited Bihar on September 15th and 16th, 2007, and investigated
the issue of the so called vigilante justice in detail. We wish to put it on
record that our findings show that the Vaishali incident was decidedly
*not*a case of vigilante justice as it is being termed in the media.
The media reported extensively that villagers in the concerned area have
been fed up with frequent robberies and had formed themselves into small
patrolling groups who kept awake at night to protect the village. We saw no
such 'vigilance committees' in the neighbourhood of the village where the
burglary took place on September 13, 2007. The affected family as well as
the neighbours themselves told us that they were *asleep* when the robbery
took place, and the affected family woke up early in the morning to discover
the robbery, and alerted the neighbours. Hence reports that a patrolling
group keeping vigilance overwhelmed the thieves who were caught red handed,
and recovered the stolen property from them, are also absolutely untrue.
>From the point of view of the Commission, it is also shocking how an
impression of the victims being thieves was initially 'confirmed' not just
by the officials as well as the media. The Commission made its own enquires
with the survivor of the incident. Within minutes of the Commission
identifying the purpose of its visit to the survivor, Ranjit Kureri,* *he
stated that *under the pressure of Rajapakar police personnel, *he had been
forced to confess that 11 of them had indeed gone on a thieving expedition
that night.* *Answering our question as to why he repeatedly made this
'confession' in front of officials as well as the media,* *he said *he was
assured by the police that he will be released in case he gave such a
version. He added that he had been threatened that he will be dealt with
brutally in case he did not.* In fact, the Commission found him eagerly
awaiting his release on the morning of its visit to the hospital where he is
under arrest, i.e. September 16, 2007 because Ranjit had apparently been
assured that he will be released that morning.
It needs to be urgently investigated by the ongoing CID enquiry as to how
false accounts about vigilante justice were systematically circulated in the
media, and by whom. We were told that after this incident, the police had
immediately made its own preliminary enquiries about this nomadic community,
and did not find evidence of any criminal history, even of petty thefts,
regarding members of this group,. The SP, Vaishali, with whom we spoke in
detail, and who has now been transferred, had in fact shown scepticism about
the victims being thieves even before we could establish it through our own
enquiries.
There is also appalling confusion in the media and among the Bihar officials
about who the victimised communities were. The press has been calling them
'Nats/Nuts' and this does not seem to be true. The only survivor of the
massacre said that the victims belonged to Kureri community and
categorically stated that they have nothing to do with Nuts. Subsequently,
in the local press, the word Banjara is now doing the rounds, which seems to
be an official generic term for all 'gypsies' and nomads. Again, this just
shows that the administration in Bihar has no clear idea about the nomadic
communities which reside in the state today. The Bihar SC list, in fact,
includes 'Kurariar', recognising the existence of such a community in the
state. When checked from anthropological sources, it is confirmed that the
Kurariar community is semi-nomadic, and has a number of synonyms in Bihar,
including Kureri, Karori, Dhami, Dhamin etc. The Commission was unable to
trace even a single member of the affected community. We repeatedly made a
request to meet women and children of this group in Vaishali, but they were
not traceable by the police. The Commission strongly demands that
a) *Since the victims were not thieves, all possible social and political
angles to this brutal killing should be carefully investigated.*
b) The only survivor should be given adequate protection,* *especially
from people who may try to harm him because of their interest in* destroying
evidence.*
c) The Commission did not get the impression that the survivor was being
taken care of sufficiently. He should be given immediate proper medical
treatment and other general care. His family should be traced along with
other group members and on humanitarian grounds, atleast his immediate
family should be allowed to stay with him while he recovers.
d) On a priority basis, efforts must be made to immediately trace the
affected group's women and children.
e) As soon as Ranjit is well enough to accompany the officials, help
should be taken from this only survivor to identify the community from which
men were killed, so that imposters do not claim the compensation and
rehabilitation package being offered by the administration.
f) A thorough enquiry be conducted into any possible criminal history
of the main accused in the case.
g) We were told by the transferred SP, Vaishali, that the sections under
which the murderers have been charged include serious rioting, which if
proved can lead to fitting punishment for the perpetrators. According to our
information, IPC sections 147, 148, 149, 302, 307 and 353 have been invoked
to deal with this case. We demand that the investigation into this issue is
carried out in depth, and that the most stringent punishment is given to the
culprits.
h) We do not comprehend why there is no punitive collective fine
possible in this particular case, regardless of whether the victims were
actual thieves or not. We hope that the punitive measures proposed for the
future to discourage such incidents will be implemented for this case as
well.
i) We have made a note that the confession by Ranjit to 'planned
robbery' by 11 people has been once again done under pressure from the
police. In the Commission's experience, this is a very common occurrence
regarding the nomadic communities. Whenever a burglary or a murder takes
place, the police raids the habitations of nomadic (and denotified)
communities and their members are arbitrarily picked up by the police to
show immediate 'results'. The Commission hopes that the administration, and
the state governments, particularly, will take a serious note of this
tendency on part of the police.
j) The nomadic communities in modern India live a subhuman existence
and fall victims to barbaric medieval practices of civil society. We note
with pain that only after such gruesome events have actually taken place
that the government thinks in terms of rehabilitation and giving 'justice'
to the victims. This makes us wonder whether it is important for each
nomadic community to lose so many of its members before they will be
rehabilitated and noticed as the state's most vulnerable subjects today.
k) The Commission demands that an immediate, time bound survey is
started in all the states of these asset-less nomadic communities who have
no territorial rights, and an adequate rehabilitation package to be
implemented within a specified time frame is announced for them immediately.
Sh. Balakrishna Renke Sh. Lakshmibhai Patni Dr. Meena
Radhakrishna
Chairman Member
Director (Research)
New Delhi, 21.9.07
--
Ranjit
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