The Hindu : Arrest won't have any effect, says Ranbir Sena chief

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 30, 2002

National

National

Arrest won't have any effect, says Ranbir Sena chief

By K. Balchand

PATNA Aug. 29. The Ranbir Sena chief, Brahmeshwar Nath Singh alias Mukhiyaji, who was held here today by a police team, was wanted in more than 40 cases of massacres and murders, 20 of which had been filed in Bhojpur district alone from where he hails. He was picked up from a commercial locality where he was holding a meeting of a frontal organisation, Kisan Sangh.

He confessed his identity before the press as well and defiantly said his arrest would not affect the Sena, formed by the feudal Bhumihar landlords at Belaur village of Bhojpur district in 1994. He would be produced before the court tomorrow and taken into remand for interrogation.

One a teacher with M.A. in Political Science, he is accused of masterminding such carnages as the one in Laxmanpur Bathe in Jehanabad district where women and children were among the 61 who were killed in December 1997. The list of killings is a long one, including such massacres as Shankerbigha (12), Narainpur (14), Miapur (36) and Bathani Tola (23), which is regarded as the turning point in the rise of the Ranbir Sena to counter the two-decade old movement of the peasants for their rightful dues.

The Ranbir Sena, until recently, was considered the most dreaded of the private armies that had been raised to counter the naxalite outfits in Bihar.

The RJD had always accused it of having a link with the BJP and the Samata Party. The Sena had openly supported the BJP-led NDA in the parliamentary elections in 1999. It had also been charged with carrying out political murders.

It had last struck in a big way in Miapur in July 2000. During the past two years, however, the Sena had suffered several splits and the internal conflicts had claimed several lives rendering the outfit rather weak.

Naxalite outfits such as the PW and the MCC took advantage of the situation and struck. Three Sena men were killed in Jehanabad and three lynched by the public in Arrah recently. Police too either killed or arrested its gun runners.

The heat must have told on the Sena chief. The Senior Superintendent of Police, Sunil Kumar, led a team of just four personnel and took him into custody.

The RJD supremo, Laloo Prasad Yadav, said the State Government would reward the team with Rs. 5 lakhs as announced earlier.

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