The Enforcement Director’s noose on Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family is growing tighter as a result of the land-for-jobs case. The RJD supremo is already convicted in several cases related to the fodder scam and is out on bail on health grounds. Notably, his party’s rule in the state was notoriously referred to as the “Jungle Raj.” It is the term used to describe the 15-year rule of the RJD chief and his wife Rabri Devi when a reign of terror was unleashed which still makes people shudder when they think of it, all under the guise of empowering the ‘oppressed classes.’
On 5 August 1997, during the hearing of a petition, even the Patna High Court employed the same phrase to highlight the appalling state of law and order in the region. Numerous businesses abandoned the state in large numbers to avoid the armed extortionists and hundreds of doctors and engineers were kidnapped and kept hostage for ransom. Unprecedented caste conflicts also transpired in the state and Central Bihar acquired the moniker “killing fields.” Crime and killing flourished under state patronage. Some of the most infamous cases of the time were revisited by an X (formerly Twitter) user named ‘The Story Teller’ to recount the horror inflicted under Lalu Yadav’s jurisdiction.
The murder of Dalit IAS Officer G Krishnaiyyah
G Krishnaiyyah, a Dalit Andhra Pradesh native and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the 1985 batch was attacked by a crowd on 5th December 1994, while travelling to Gopalganj (location of his posting) from a conference in Hajipur. While driving through Muzaffarpur, his staff car was stopped by a mob comprised of people attending the funeral procession of the criminal-turned-politician Chhotan Shukla.
Only a day earlier, Chhotan, the elder brother of JD(U) MLA and convicted felon as well as baahubali (strongman) Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla who was very close to Lalu Prasad had been shot dead in a gang conflict in Muzaffarpur by a minister in the Lalu Prasad administration. His companions and allies believed that the district magistrate (DM) and Superintendent of Police (SP) Muzaffarpur had a covert hand in his death.
All of the individuals found guilty in the case were leading the funeral procession, including Anand Mohan, an independent MLA at the time and his wife Lovely, an independent MP from Vaishali. Their speech inciting the mob against the Muzaffarpur DM and SP was captured on camera by the Bihar Police’s intelligence unit. The funeral procession which turned into a ferocious crowd began hurling stones at Krishnaiyyah’s car, as they mistook him for Muzaffarpur’s DM.
After exiting the car, Krishnaiyyah begged them that he wasn’t the DM of Muzaffarpur, but his submissions fell on deaf ears and he was virtually stoned to death. Afterwards, Bhutkun, a well-known criminal and younger brother of Chhotan fired three bullets at close range into the official’s wounded head. Bhutkun was later shot dead by rivals.
Champa Biswas rape case
BB Vishwas, a 1982 batch Dalit IAS officer was the Director of Social Security in the Labor Department of Bihar at that time. He had charged that his 30-year-old wife Champa Vishwas, her mother, her sister-in-law, two maids and a niece had all been sexually assaulted by a 27-year-old close aide of Lalu Prasad named Mrityunjay Kumar Yadav and his friends. The accused resorted to intimidation, greed, violence, and coercion in the act.
Champa Vishwas once had to have an abortion. Ultimately, she needed to get herself sterilized. She had to take action to avoid getting pregnant following multiple sexual violations. Furthermore, she feared that the perpetrator had murdered her niece Kalyani and the two missing maidservants. The Governor had forwarded the file to the Home Minister after taking cognizance of the situation. Mrityunjay’s mother, Hemlata Yadav who also persuaded Champa to marry him was an MLA as well as chairperson of the Bihar Social Welfare Advisory Board. Interestingly, Mrityunjay Yadav had written a biography of Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Mohammad Taslimuddin – Lalu Prasad’s favourite crony
Mohammed Taslimuddin was an Indian politician and a veteran RJD leader. He even served as a union minister both under HD Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh’s government. However, he had another prominent side which was that of a criminal. He terrorised the local authorities, ostensibly taking up issues of the oppressed, until they finally attached his land in Araria. Following the uproar, the Bihar assembly’s special committee looked into the accusations made against him and claimed that his property had been rightfully attached.
At least sixteen cases of rape, dacoity, arson, and robbery were submitted against him. An eyewitness disclosed that the MP and two associates brought a young Santhali girl home, drank wine and “then did the wrong things with the girl all night” in one of the unlawful detention files filed under Indian Penal Code 342.
He faced charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy (IPC 419, 420, 467, 468 471 and 120-b), rape and dacoity. However, all Bihar leaders with criminal records were protected by Manmohan Singh in his cabinet, who declared, “They are presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
Shilpi-Gautam rape and murder case
The incident transpired after Rabri Devi was announced as the new Chief Minister of Bihar, following Lalu Prasad’s conviction in the fodder scam. Rabri Devi’s brother Sadhu Yadav who was an MLA from RJD’s Gopalganj constituency gained more clout in Bihar politics after she took over the position.
Shilpi-Gautam murder shook the Bihar government of the time. The case was finally closed as double suicide, although many remain unconvinced with the investigation. Shilpi was the 23-year-old daughter of Ujjwal Kumar Jain, a clothes store (Kamla Stores) owner and Gautam was the 27-year-old son of a London-based doctor, B.N Singh. He was associated with the youth wing of Rashtriya Janata Dal and the two were believed to be in a relationship.
The two went missing on 2nd July 1999 and the next day their dead bodies were discovered in a semi-nude state inside a car in a parking near quarter number 12, Frazer Road, Patna. This quarter belonged to Sadhu Yadav. The police investigation and handling of this case came under serious questioning. Even before the police could secure the crime scene, the supporters of the MLA reached the scene and created a lot of ruckus.
Even the vehicle was driven to the police station by a constable instead of being towed, which rendered getting any fingerprint information from the steering wheel impossible. Cops initially declared this a case of suicide even before the Viscera report. Then later they reported the possibility of poisoning. The body of Gautam was cremated in a hurry without taking permission from his family members. Another inconsistency found in the police report was that the garage was locked from inside and the key was missing, so the person who called the police must have been aware of the bodies.
Shilpi’s family members came forward six days after the bodies were found and proclaimed that it was a murder and not a suicide. There was also a huge political uproar over the case due to the involvement of political personalities. All this combined with the botched-up investigation done by police till then, the state government was forced to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The agency sent off the vaginal fluid of Shilpi for DNA testing in Hyderabad. The test report suggested that multiple people had raped Shilpi before her death. The CBI asked for the DNA sample of an MLA, who refused to provide the sample. It is suspected that the politician was Sadhu Yadav. The case was closed by the CBI after four years and declared it to be a suicide case in their report that was turned in to the court. Her parents rejected the report and still feel it to be a case of murder and want a fresh investigation to be done. Prashant Jain, her brother was abducted from outside his house recently and subsequently set free.
Rabri Devi defended child rapist RJD MLA Rajballabh Yadav
A special court in Patna in 2018 pronounced RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav and five others guilty of luring and raping a 15-year-old girl in February 2016. The politician was convicted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act.
The victim, a resident of Bihar Sharif was reportedly abducted by a woman, Sulekha Devi to a location 15 kilometres away from district headquarters. According to reports, she and Raj Ballabh Yadav consumed alcohol and forced the minor girl to watch pornographic videos. He then directed the girl to imitate the lewd acts. The girl was raped and held captive all night when she refused to comply.
However, former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi was caught defending him while campaigning for his wife, who was contesting from the Nawada Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 general election. She claimed, “The way Raj Ballabh ji has been convicted and he has been set up by those who wanted to spoil his name, thus Vibha Devi (Raj Ballabh’s wife) is the candidate and we have to help her win. We have to make her win.”
He turned himself in to the police and after a brief hearing held in the Nalanda court, he was released on bond. RJD expelled the legislator after a major uproar to save itself from embarrassment, however, he immediately arrived at Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Patna home after bail to seek his counsel.
Rohini Acharya’s mob-style wedding
Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi married off their second daughter, Rohini Acharya to the son of Rao Ranvijay Singh, a senior Mumbai-based income-tax official in 2002. The festivities, however, sparked intense controversy since Lalu Prasad’s relatives deployed their goons to inflict fear in the public and made sure the event would live on in the state’s collective memory as a magnificent show.
RJD supporters, who are considered miscreants by most, prowled the state capital’s streets, broke into car dealerships and fled with up to fifty brand-new, unregistered vehicles. Traders and businessmen had to close their shutters. One of the major car manufacturers shut down its Patna operations and moved its employees, including some top executives to Kolkata. The army of raiders commanded by Lalu Prasad also went after small-time tradesmen and merchants who were too scared to talk for fear of reprisals.
“We gave five cars voluntarily. But employees at the car showroom said 10 new air-conditioned vehicles, including Altos and Wagon Rs, were forcibly taken away,” mentioned A.C. Gupta, who owned a Maruti showroom on Boring Road. The story was similar to those told by other automakers. Most of the time, throngs had shown up, taken over the automobiles by force and driven off.
The Patna Police were either hand in glove with them or just turned a blind eye, allegedly because they were obeying Lalu Prasad’s orders and were hoping that once the cars were returned after the wedding, the storm would subside. The proprietors of many furniture businesses, from which at least 100 sofa sets and luxurious chairs were removed to embellish six enormous pandals, the centrepiece of which was a mannequin of Mumbai’s Taj Hotel also suffered severe losses.
The dreaded rule of Mohammad Shahabuddin
Mohammad Shahabuddin was a politician and former Member of Parliament from the Siwan constituency in the state of Bihar. He was a former member of the National Executive Committee of the Janata Dal and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. He was disqualified from contesting elections following his conviction for the kidnapping and disappearance of Chote Lal Gupta, an activist of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation for which he was serving a life sentence. He was also accused of killing 15 other Communist Party activists, including the former student leader Chandrashekhar Prasad.
He faced around 40 criminal cases, including murder and kidnapping crimes. He was described as a convicted gangster, a baahubali in the Siwan district, and a close aide of Lalu Prasad Yadav. On 16th March 2001, the police were executing a warrant on the president of the local RJD unit, when Shahabuddin objected and slapped the arresting officer Sanjiv Kumar while his men beat up the police. The police then re-grouped in strength and a pitched battle was launched on Shahabuddin’s house, with help being sought from other police units in the vicinity, including one from Uttar Pradesh.
By the early 2000s, Shahabuddin was presiding over a parallel government in Siwan, resolving family and land conflicts through khap panchayats, setting the costs for medical consultations and mediating marital disagreements. The Siwan District Magistrate labelled him a persistent offender in 2005.
Shahabuddin’s home in Pratappur village was the target of a police raid in April 2005, which was spearheaded by the then-SP of Siwan district Ratn Sanjay (IPS) and supported by the DM of Siwan district C. K. Anil (IAS). The search operation turned up illegal weapons like AK-47s as well as other military hardware that could only be obtained by the army, such as night-vision goggles and laser-guided guns. A report by the then Chief of Police divulged that Shahabuddin had connections to the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence, as several of the weapons had the marks of Pakistani ordnance companies. Eight non-bailable warrants were then issued to apprehend Shahabuddin.
The Delhi police and a special team sent from Bihar could not arrest him for over three months due to his political clout, despite living in his officially assigned quarter in Delhi and attending parliament. Police were finally able to arrest him from his official residence in November 2005. Subsequently, he was refused bail by the Supreme Court of India.
A special court in Siwan in 2015 pronounced Mohammed Shahabuddin and three other people guilty of kidnapping and killing two brothers by dousing them with acid eleven years prior. Sheikh Aslam, Shahabuddin, Rajkumar Sah, and Arif Hussain were proven culpable of murder, kidnapping, forcing evidence to vanish and criminal conspiracy.
Messiah of underprivileged people who exploited them
Funding for projects controlled by the state government was discontinued by Lalu Prasad. Its department employed around 35,000 people who had not received their wages. The period of nonpayment ranged from three months to nine years. Many families were financially destroyed and as a result, they were forced to live in abject poverty with nothing to eat or income. When parents could not afford the school fees, their children quit attending. Some even took their own lives because they were unable to handle the constant pressure.
Twenty-two-year-old Chandan Bhattacharya was one such individual who immolated himself near Patna High Court on 15th August 2002 and died on 19th August 19, in protest of non-payment of salary to his father Parijat Bhattacharya, who was employed in agro-industries development corporation.
He stated, “The financial condition of all the families is bad. I have not been able to take competitive examinations because there is no money to fill up the forms. I felt that the life I was leading was not worth living and decided to immolate myself in front of the Patna HC to highlight the situation facing the employees and their family members.”
The Patna police were aware of two other people’s possible attempts at self-immolation on Independence Day. A Bihar State Road Transport Corporation worker named Sudhir Kumar had threatened to commit himself because he did not receive a salary. One of the other laid-off employees had threatened to follow suit. A staff member of the Bihar State Industries Development Corporation committed suicide a few months earlier.
“Many of us are on the verge of starvation. Suicides cannot be ruled out,” unveiled a public undertakings employee. Employees of Patna Municipal Corporation and Biscomaun reportedly ended their lives as a result of not receiving their paychecks. Out of the 54 public undertakings, only the Bihar State Warehousing Corporation turned a profit, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report.
The 54 public undertakings had liabilities of Rs 7,558 crore and an investment of Rs 8,168 crore as of March 2000. According to the CAG audit, 32 of these endeavours have reportedly been in the liquidation process for the previous 14 years.
Supaul gang-rape case
The court of additional and district judge-III Ravi Ranjan Mishra’s ruling in the case in 2020 ended the 25-year wait for justice for the survivor of the Supaul gang-rape case and her family. It convicted former Janata Dal MLA Yogendra Narayan Sardar, his son Uma Sardar, Shambhu Singh and Bhupendra Yadav, also known as Bhupen Yadav of violating Sections 376 (rape), 366 (kidnapping), 458 (home trespass), and 324 (voluntary inflicting pain) of the India Penal Code and sentenced them to life in jail. Each of the four convicted individuals was additionally fined Rs. 1 lakh.
The prosecution noted that on 16th October 1994, at around midnight, the Dalit girl who was sleeping with her mother in the residence under the Triveniganj police station area was visited by the former MLA from Triveniganj. She was taken prisoner by the accused, made to sit in a Jeep and then subjected to gang rape. However, in the midst of the crime, she castrated the then-lawmaker. The ex-MLA was taken to a hospital after suffering serious injuries. Meanwhile, the victim described her ordeal at her home after managing to break free from the grip of her abusers.
Conclusion
It is crucial to remember that these incidents represent only a small portion of the Lalu-Rabri tyranny that prevailed in Bihar. Lalu Prasad spearheaded the assault on law and order both during his tenure in Janata Dal and following its dissolution when he founded the RJD. The police were scared to even file a complaint against the criminals because they enjoyed his patronage as he turned a blind eye to their misdeeds.
The state economy and administration of Bihar fell apart. Meanwhile, Lalu Prasad got embroiled in the Rs 900 crore fodder scandal in 1996 after which he was put behind bars and Rabri Devi was appointed as the “puppet” chief minister by him. However, her administration was eventually overthrown in 2004 with a resounding majority to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (United) coalition which ended the era of the “Jungle Raj.”
Now, as the Yadav family is being held accountable for their actions, many leftists and Islamists including Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Ravish Kumar and Rohini Singh among others have jumped to defend them and are crying ‘victimhood’ merely because the former are relentless in their opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party. These supporters are willing to overlook one of the darkest periods in the history of Indian democracy in their hatred for the BJP which only further exposes their nefarious mindset and perverse objectives.
