Bahraich: There was a cacophony of distress calls around 4 pm that day in villages where Brahmins are in sizable numbers. The calls were from those part of a procession that would have culminated in the immersion of some 15 idols of the Hindu goddess Durga—an annual affair in Mahasi block in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district for nearly three decades.
Those making distress calls claimed the procession halted midway owing to a confrontation with the son of a “prosperous” local Muslim man who objected to “offensive” songs playing on loudspeakers as the procession passed through his neighbourhood.
What started as an argument escalated in no time and resulted in the killing of Ram Gopal Mishra, which then plunged villages in Mahasi block into a 24-hour spiral of violence.
Two senior police administrators, ADG (Secretary, Home) Sanjeev Gupta and ADG (Law & Order) Amitabh Yash, had to be rushed to ground zero to quell violence and arson.
Senior police officials conceded that communal violence would not have erupted if not for a “three-pronged failure”. The first was letting Mishra climb the roof of the Muslim man’s house, the second was walking into an ambush the next day, and the third, letting a mob take Mishra’s body.
Against this backdrop, ThePrint pieces together the sequence of events of 13 October that led to communal violence in Maharajganj and other villages, and looks at factors that set the stage for a storm the likes of which Bahraich hadn’t seen for decades.
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‘All hell broke loose after lathi-charge’
Around this time each year, villagers from Mahasi block, including from the village Rehuya Mansur where Ram Gopal Mishra lived, take out a procession to immerse idols of the Hindu goddess Durga in the Saryu river.
Their route to Goriya ghat includes a tri-junction located a few metres from the house of prime accused Abdul Hameed where the procession halted on 13 October. Police officials who were on the spot told ThePrint that one of Hameed’s sons, Sarfaraz, stepped out of the house to unplug the music system while objecting to the “offensive” songs being played.
This, said officials, led to a verbal confrontation which then escalated.
Akhilesh Bajpayee, 55, said son Amrendra informed him that violence had erupted in front of Hameed’s house. Akhilesh rushed to the spot around 4 pm and found the situation there to be tense. “Stone pelting had taken place. People were making noise about stone pelting, abuse and taking away the pen drive used to play the songs,” Amrendra said.
“The Hindus were upset, saying stones had been pelted and the saffron flag desecrated. Till that point in time, police were focussed on controlling Hindus instead of stopping Hameed and his sons,” recalled Akhilesh.
But some men managed to breach the police column opposite Hameed’s house and vandalised two- and four-wheelers parked there.
Akhilesh said he tried to intervene but before he could do so, the station house officer (SHO) of the local police station ordered a lathi-charge on the procession.
“All hell broke loose after that lathi-charge; it was absolute chaos with no one in control. I tried appealing to people not to do anything but they began to abuse Hameed and the police,” said Akhilesh. The mob, he added, then set its sights on Hameed’s house, and Ram Gopal Mishra with the help of a pipe climbed up to the roof. About 15-20 minutes later, a voice rang out from the adjacent building, announcing that someone had died.
“Police were silent spectators. I pleaded to the circle officer (CO) to at least retrieve the body,” claimed Akhilesh, adding it was the sub-divisional magistrate who upon his arrival asked the SHO and CO to retrieve the body.
Once news spread of Ram Gopal Mishra’s death, the mob went on a rampage, attacking whoever and whatever came in their way.
Having learnt his younger brother, a person with disabilities, was stuck there, Vinod rushed to the spot where he said he was “attacked with an axe”.
He also claimed he confronted Hameed about the son’s behaviour and was told “offensive songs” were to blame.
As violence on the streets abated by the evening of 13 October, focus turned to the district hospital where Mishra’s body was taken.
BJP MLA Sureshwar Singh told ThePrint that he reached the hospital and saw a mob obstructing officials who were trying to take Mishra’s body inside, to the mortuary.
District president of BJP’s youth wing was also allegedly part of the mob and is among those accused in a police complaint by Singh, as ThePrint reported earlier. The legislator has alleged that his convoy and that of district officials was attacked and even shot at outside the hospital.
By the early hours of 14 October, violence returned to the streets after the immersion of idols left behind at the spot where the procession was halted the previous day.
A DSP-rank official was roped in from another police circle along with six SHOs and a Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) company to oversee transportation of Mishra’s body from the mortuary to his village. But they, it is learnt, were “unaware” that people armed with lathis, axes and inflammable material were awaiting their arrival. “There was an intel failure and the local intelligence unit (LIU) failed to bring the assembly to the knowledge of officials who were taking the body back home,” a senior police official told ThePrint.
CO, SHO didn’t take charge: Bahraich SP
Of the 15 FIRs filed in connection with the violence, at least three were filed by Muslim women from Chandpara village who alleged they were attacked and their property vandalised by unknown men on the night of 13 October. A total of nine FIRs were filed in connection with violence that erupted on the morning of 14 October, including one filed by the SI posted at Hardi police station. In his complaint, the SI alleged homes of Muslims were attacked by a mob of 100-200 men on the afternoon of 14 October.
In a similar case filed on a complaint by another SI, police have booked nearly 200 unidentified accused on charges of rioting and vandalism.
Bahraich Superintendent of Police (SP) Vrinda Shukla told ThePrint that videos and CCTV footage are being scanned to identify the culprits.
Senior officials of Uttar Pradesh Police ThePrint spoke to conceded officers present at the spot on 13 October were not proactive enough to pre-empt the escalation.
Department sources said they have evidence to show the officer of sub-inspector rank tasked with keeping an eye on the procession, took his eye off the ball. The situation slipped further out of hand owing to lack of “decisive steps” on the part of the CO, who was the most senior police official there when Ram Gopal Mishra climbed Hameed’s roof.
BJP MLA Sureshwar Singh was among those alleging the police could not retrieve Mishra’s body from the roof. He also alleged the district administration could not arrange a vehicle and the body was eventually transported to the district hospital on a motorcycle.
On Wednesday, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) (Rural) Pavitra Mohan Tripathi was attached to DGP HQ in Lucknow. And on 16 October, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rupendra Kumar Gaur was relieved of his duties as CO (Mahasi) based on a report by SP Shukla. Two other officials, SHO (Hardi) S.K. Verma and Mahasi police out-post in-charge Shiv Kumar Saroj, were suspended hours after the violence on 13 October.
“Lack of leadership from CO and SHO on the spot made the issue far worse. Mobs cannot be outnumbered but because CO and SHO did not take charge of the situation and issue directions to their subordinates, the constabulary did not act,” SP Shukla told ThePrint.
She, however, contested claims that the police were unprepared for any untoward incident during the procession. A company and two platoons of PAC were already there, she said.
“All additional forces were not deployed in Mahasi, Maharajganj, but it was due to the fact that nothing of this sort had happened here in the past,” she said, adding that “forces were distributed in different areas of the district where processions were planned”.
On the violence reported on 14 October, SP Shukla said, “There are videos clearly showing that, while a majority of people took a right turn that goes towards the Mahasi circle office where they intended to protest with the body, some others took a left turn, away from where the body was, and orchestrated the violence.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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