Mathura: Thursday’s violence at Jawahar Bagh in Mathura has brought into focus the thriving nexus between the sect, Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena, the Uttar Pradesh administration and some influential politicians of the state.
The leader of the sect, Ram Vraksh Yadav, allegedly had a “direct line to Lucknow”. The leader, who was declared dead by the police this evening, was receiving a monthly pension of Rs 15,000 from the ruling Samajwadi Party government as “Loktantra Rakshak Senani”.
Yadav had continued with his activities, including hoarding of arms and ammunition, with complete impunity from within the park complex despite the sprawling 260 acre Jawahar Bagh being surrounded by the office of the Mathura superintendent of police, the tehsil office, the office of the district magistrate and the Mathura district court.
The police control room, the reserve police line and Mathura jail are not far from the Jawahar Bagh area. It all started on March 15, 2014 when Yadav, with 40 people, staged a dharna in front of the Mathura DM’s office demanding cancellation of elections, 60 litres of petrol for one rupee and introduction of Azad Hind currency in place of the existing Indian currency.
The DM then told them to sit on a dharna inside Jawahar Bagh for two days. Since then Yadav not only never moved out of the park, but also took over the entire area.
For the last two years, neither the local Intelligence units nor the police were able to enter the Jawahar Bagh area. Incidentally, Jawahar Bagh belonged to the state forest department.
Yadav had put up a blockade at the entrance of the park and the 3,000 squatters there were his disciples and called themselves “satyagarahis”. He had also set up a school for children inside the premise and had a morning yoga session and chants of “Subhash Chandra zindabad.”
Mathura clash mastermind is dead: Cops
More than 24 hours after the clashes in Mathura took place, the UP police on Saturday announced that the mastermind of the Mathura clashes Ram Vraksh Yadav had died in the violence.
DGP Javeed Ahmad tweeted that the body of Ram Vraksh had been identified by his associates who had been arrested. “We are intimating his family for the final confirmation,” the DGP said.
Earlier in the day, the DGP had said that he was not in a position to confirm or deny if Ram Vraksh Yadav was absconding or had been killed in the clashes.
“The 11 charred bodies that have been recovered from Jawahar Bagh after the incident, will be sent for DNA sampling and only then can we confirm the identities of the deceased persons,” he had told reporters. Meanwhile, the family members of Yadav in village Raipur Baghpur in Ghazipur district are unconcerned about his whereabouts.
