Bihar Dalit firebrand and disqualified CPI-ML (Liberation) MLA known for ‘Sadak Pe School’ campaign: Who is Manoj Manzil?

A local court in Arrah recently sentenced Manzil to life imprisonment along with 22 others in a 2015 case of murder of one J P Singh. Manzil, who also faces 30 other cases, is expected to challenge the local court’s verdict in the Patna High Court.

The murder case which led to his disqualification as an MLA was linked to the campaign of the 2015 Assembly polls. At a public meeting of the CPI(ML) Liberation that was being held in Badgaon village near Azeembad then, party members were said to have learnt about the murder of a party worker Satish Yadav.

In retaliation, the CPI(ML) Liberation members were accused of killing a local upper caste Rajput resident J P Singh.

The CPI (ML) Liberation has called Manzil’s conviction “an act of judicial massacre and part of feudalistic conspiracy”.

“We are still not sure if the body was of JP Singh’s or not…The other cases against him are being pursued because of Manzil’s activism for the poor. They are politically motivated,” the CPI (ML) Liberation’s Bihar media in-charge Kumar Parvez said.

The party’s Bihar secretary Kunal said its workers are planning to visit every Bhojpur village between February 19 and February 25 to protest against the court verdict and demand justice for Manzil.

Activist-politician

Over the years, Bhojpur has come to be associated with a range of socialist and farmer movements in Bihar.

Manzil too started out with student activism. He was associated with the All India Students Association (AISA) when he was studying at the Veer Kunwar Singh University in Arrah.

Since 2006, Manzil started gaining ground in Bhojpur, becoming popular among local residents for the work he was doing. His “Sadak Pe School (school on the street)” campaign was also started around this time. As part of the initiative, he would organise teaching lessons for students along roads and highways to question the education system in Bihar.

He would flag the “classrooms-less, building-less and teachers-scarce” education system in Bihar. The campaign gained a lot of traction and went on to be noticed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as well.

Due to his fierce activism, Manzil has gained the reputation of being a “crusader” against the “poor education system” in the state.

With the CPI(ML) Liberation having its support base in Bhojpur, Manzil soon started emerging as a popular party firebrand and was fielded in the polls.

Despite his arrest at the investigation’s preliminary stage in the murder of JP Singh, Manzil was fielded in the 2015 Assembly polls from Agiaon, but he polled only 30,000 votes and lost. He went on to win the 2020 polls from the seat against the JD(U)’s Prabhunath Prasad by a margin of over 37,000 votes.

As per his 2020 election affidavit, the cases that Manzil faces include murder, attempt to murder, criminal intimidation and cheating. He has assets worth over Rs 3 lakh. Manzil’s wife, Sheela Kumari, is also an active CPI (ML) Liberation member.