Sugar industry in western UP learns to live by the gun

The lynching of Italian firm Graziano’s CEO L K Chaudhary by a mob of dismissed employees has brought to the fore the poor law...

The lynching of Italian firm Graziano’s CEO L K Chaudhary by a mob of dismissed employees has brought to the fore the poor law and order situation in western UP that corporate heads in the area have long learnt to live with. The sugar industry, the only major industry in the area, has been struggling, with three top executives of the mills killed in the recent past. Now, the executives have learnt to defend themselves.

While some have procured arms licences, others rely on private armed guards to ensure their safety in UP’s ‘wild west’ where instances of settling scores at gun point are rampant. Carrying a gun is a necessity in the face of rampant lawlessness. “I got it when I got posted here,” a chief executive of a sugar mill said.

Sugar mill officials are wary of speaking on record as it is a sensitive matter. Renowned security company Group 4 Securitas has been engaged in some sugar mills in the region. However, demands to the Government for special security cover for an industry which forms the backbone of the state economy have fallen on deaf ears. Executives still indicate their preference for police protection and are willing to pay generously for the service. “We are ready to pay charges for the police gunners,” one of them told The Indian Express.

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The need for enhanced security is obvious in the face of the murders of senior executives of the industry in broad daylight by the local mafia. Siddarth Upadhyay, Senior DGM, Bajaj Hindustan Group was gunned down in April, while Subhash Chand Jaggi, VP, Triveni group, was killed in 1999. SBEC sugar mill DGM (Engineering) J K Chopra was shot dead four years ago.

Sugar mill executives claim the murders took place because these individuals refused to succumb to pressures from the local mafia and politicians and refused to give them contracts running into crores.

According to IG Police (Meerut Zone) Gurdarshan Singh, a Deputy SP has been posted as Industry Relations Officer in Noida and Greater Noida. Police helplines and Quick Response Teams armed with video cameras and riot equipment have also been set up. Singh, however, said there is no blanket security cover plan for the sugar sector.

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