I saw some sensation in the police administration of Etah on 19 November 1981. Nobody was saying nothing nor SSP Vikram Singh nor District Magistrate Krishnan. But felt that something untoward had happened. While walking, I went to the house of former Uttar Pradesh minister Nawab Singh Yadav. There I came to know that some Harijan has been killed in village Dehuli of Jasrana police station in Mainpuri district.
Let me tell you that at that time both Jasrana and Dehuli used to be in Mainpuri district, now they are in Firozabad district. Then Dalits were called Harijan. I decided to go to Dehuli, but there was a fear inside how to go to another district without informing the news editor! There was a new job, yet I thought, should go. Then I was Roving Ciresdant of Dainik Jagran. I had Etah, Hamirpur and Sultanpur districts.
On the morning of 20 November, I reached Jasrana by bus and reached the police station directly. No one else except Munshi in the police station. I told him that I have to go to Dehuli. He told that there is six miles from here and there is no road. You have to go through the canal tracks. I chirped with him that he should juggle a vehicle. Incidentally, at the same time, the Jeep of XEN of PWD stopped coming there. XEN Saheb was also going to Dehuli because the Chief Minister had to come.
Munshi also put me in a jeep with him. When I reached there after an hour -long journey, I was filled with dust. Blanket and briefcase lying on the shoulder. The dust moved towards the bush and the village, only then the noise of the landing of a helicopter was heard in the sky. All the people of the village ran in the same direction.
Union Home Minister Giani Zail Singh came from this helicopter. After getting down, he went directly to the victim Harijan family to Banwari's house and sat on the lamp of his hut. An old woman came and sat near her feet and started crying. Giani ji picked him up and asked the whole anecdote while turning his hand. He told that Thakuran Ker Balmashi came. 20-22 people came and killed everyone. Do not leave the one.
Giani ji wiped her tears and also. Meanwhile, another helicopter landed and came to know, Chief Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh has come. He too came to the house of the same Harijan woman and did not sit on Dehri like Giani ji but stood. Giani ji said to the then Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Swaroop Kumari Bakshi and said, Swaroop Kumari should ask for water.
It was not the era of Bisleri. Swaroop Kumari told SSP Karmaveer Singh of Mainpuri, bring water. His order reached the soldier Ramsufal Dubey. Dubey immediately washed a pushed lotus and washed away from the well. Meanwhile, the Harijan woman gave water to Giani ji by filling water in aluminum with her moss. Giani ji asked the Chief Minister standing behind taking water, Vishwanath will drink water? He denied.
Giani ji drank water. Chief Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh drank the water of Dubey ji's lotus. I was feeling the difference between two ministers sitting with Giani ji. The woman told a lot while crying. She was repeatedly taking the name of Santosha gang that Wahi had killed Hamaye Gharwar.
Santosha was the leader of an emerging gang in those days. These people would go anywhere and kill. But before that it is important to understand that era. The Thakur caste people had dominated in Santosha gang. In those days, there was a battle of domination between Thakurs and intermediate castes (Yadav, Kurmi, Lodh) in Etah, Etawah, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad and Kanpur in central Uttar Pradesh.
Other backward castes like Kachi, Sailor, Nonia etc. were also emerging. But Harijan (Dalits) were the most victims of these because they were easily targeted to create terror. The upper castes of the villages were mobilized behind the Thakurs, while the backward castes were behind the Yadavas, Kurmis and Lodhon. Their chieftains are called Robinhoods in their respective society.
The entire central Uttar Pradesh was filled with such rebels. Chhattisgarh, Anar Singh Yadav, Phoolan Devi, Kusuma Nine, Vikram Mallah, Malkhan Singh etc. At that time, Chief Minister VP Singh was under pressure from his homogeneous brothers and under two strategies, such police officers were given the command to repair the law and order in some very backward districts, who were proven to be stunned.
SSP level police officers were appointed in Hamirpur, Jalaun, Etawah, Etah, Farrukhabad, Mainpuri. Earlier, SP was the highest in these districts. These captains really adopted a strategy to think without thinking. Due to this, the terror of the dacoits did not stop, the Thakur castes had become a villain in the Khamkhan between these backward and backward castes. Santosha was the origin of such a time.
At the same time, a sharp police officer Vikram Singh was removed from Hamirpur and sent to Etah. Etah was the stronghold of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was a cooperative minister in the Janata Party. Bahubali Yadav leaders like Nawab Singh Yadav and Laturi Singh dominated. There a plan was made to target Chitram Yadav and Anar Singh Yadav.
Interestingly, Thakur vs Yadav politics was also very good in these districts. In the end of 1981, a Thakur gang named Santosha killed 24 Harijans, including 2 children, in village Dehuli of Jasrana police station in Mainpuri. This made VP Singh a lot of splitting. A few days later, Anar Singh Yadav roasted 10 Harijans in a village near Butterpur station near Shikohabad.
Both Anar Singh Yadav and Chhattisgarh Yadav were killed in a police encounter. Both these dacoits were killed by the police. This sent the message that VP Singh will eliminate the bandits from the state. But neither Santosha was caught nor accused of rape with Phoolan Devi, Lalaram and Shri Ram. All these were from Thakur fraternity. Meanwhile, Phoolan Devi killed 22 Thakur in Behmai village of Kanpur.
VP Singh was looking and understanding this emergence of the upper castes in the field of politics and crime and the emergence of the middle castes and the backward, Dalit castes. Their homogeneous would make them pressure to suppress these castes on them. On the other hand, the upper castes were also dominated in the police force.
This is the reason, the dacoits killed in the encounter were mostly from these small castes. VP Singh's brother was killed by the dacoits in the forests of Shankargarh near Allahabad. VP Singh resigned from the post of Chief Minister. After this he came to the center and after a few years he became the Prime Minister of the country. Now a special court in Mainpuri district has sentenced 3 people to death in the Dehuli massacre case. On 18 November 1981, in the massacre incident, 24 Dalits, including 2 children aged 6 months and 2, were killed by a gang of dacoits.
