Vigilante justice in the sugarcane fields of UP

Mohkam and his brothers, Sansar Singh (35) Shiv Kumar (28), cousins Tejpal (46) and Sahendra (45) were involved in a double murder committed eight months ago. They were taken to the court along with two other undertrials — Vishwas Tyagi and Meharban — by two armed constables, Madan Singh and Laxman Singh and their three unarmed colleagues.

In 15 minutes, Prabhu Narayan, the truck driver had already overtaken three trucks and a car on the Muzafarnagar-Saharanpur highway. He was cruising down the road that cut through sugarcane fields. Narayan’s colleagues in the cabin — head constable Aditya Ram Sharma, constables Mani Ram and Kohar Singh — were in a relaxed mood. There was not much traffic on the road. Only a lone motorcyclist was riding ahead.

In the rear end of the truck, the undertrials were cuddled up. The silence was broken by a casual question by Mohkam to Madan Singh.“Diwan saab, is the lawyers’ strike over?” “I don’t know. Maybe they have resumed work today,” said Madan looking at the handcuffs he was holding. The truck was approaching a culvert when the constables saw a Commander jeep following them. When the police was truck was 100 metres away from the culvert, the driver noticed 15-20 tall young men lined up on both sides of the road. The jeep, packed with young men clad in white kurta-pyjama, accelerated. Then, a shot was fired at the police truck.

“Drive fast, somebody has fired at us,” shouted Madan Singh. Another round was fired from the jeep. Just when the truck driver pressed the accelerator harder, a tractor trolley came onto the road from the left. People lining the roads started firing indiscriminately.

The lone motorcyclist who had just crossed the culvert over the Sakhan canal turned around, saw the firing and fled, leaving his motorcycle behind. Narayan swerved the truck to the right, there was a deep trench and he applied the brakes. While the people in the jeep came running towards the truck, the firing continued. Madan and Laxman responded but their 303 rifles were no match to the SLRs of some of the assailants.

While Narayan and Kohar Singh escaped from the cabin through the driver’s door and hid in the sugarcane fields, Aditya Ram Shrama and Mani Ram were caught in the crossfire. As Aditya opened the left-hand side door of the driver’s cabin, he was hit by a bullet in his eye. “Save your life, ustaad,”called out Mani Ram.

While Mani Ram tried to help Aditya, the attackers threw two hand grenades at the rear end of the truck. Madan Singh and Laxman Singh jumped out of the truck. They could see the petrified driver of a bus reversing his vehicle and fleeing.

The five brothers ducked for cover and fell over each other as the bullets were being sprayed on them. “Kill them, finish them off,” the assailants shouted. Madan Singh and Laxman Singh too ran to the fields to hide. The firing went on for 25 minutes and the assailants left after ensuring that all the five were dead. Tyagi, another undertrial, too was dead.

It was 11.45 am. “Help! Help!” shouted Meharban and the polcemen returned. “There is a bomb in this vehicle,” said Meharban as he pleaded with the policemen to remove his handcuffs. “How did they spare you?” they asked him. Meharban told the police that the assailants were specifically looking for the five brothers. Tyagi got killed as he was hit by a splinter from the grenade.

That was the end of the latest round of a land dispute between two Gujjar families of neighbouring villages, which began nine years ago.

The five accused were allegedly involved in the killing of Chander Bhan and Kishan Pal, sons of Tara Chand, a sugarcane farmer of Mirakpur. The feud between the families of Tara Chand and Sampoorn Singh of the neighbouring Doogchari village — who’s Mohkam Singh’s father — began with a dispute over sharing water for the farms. The two families own over 100 bighas of land, their plots are next to each other.

Chander Bhan and Kishan Pal were killed on February 4 when they had gone to inspect their crop allegedly by Sampoorn Singh’ family. The reason: the 65-year-old Sampoorn was “insulted” by their father when he went to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the dispute.

The police say that this week’s killings are the result of a revenge attack, executed by professional killers from Muzaffarnagar and Hardwar, hired by the Tara Chand family. “The killings could not have been carried out by Tara Chand’s family alone. The killings have been meticulously planned and executed. Professional groups seem to be involved,” says Mukul Goel, Senior Superintendent of Police, Saharanpur.

In fact, when The Indian Express team visited Mirakpur, Tara Chand’s family had left the village. The family had reportedly sold off 45 bighas of land for Rs 10-12 lakh to hire professional killers. Goel said: “Farmers here are very well off. Anybody owning over 100 bighas would earn a profit of at least Rs three lakh. The crime rate increases as the height of the sugarcane crop increases.”

No arrests have been made so far. The police have come in for sharp criticism for not having enough escorts. Though the police maintain that there was “adequate” number of policemen as per the Uttar Pradesh Escorts & Guards Rules, relatives of those killed say that they did not provide proper security. “Though we never anticipated such an attack, we wanted Tara Chand’s family to sign a bond, guaranteeing good behaviour,” said Goel. But it never came through.

Will the fight end with these killings? Satya Pal Singh, a village elder, said: “I hope good sense prevails. Both the families have lost young blood in these mindless killings. If this goes on, there would be nobody left.”