Why mob violence isn't recognised for what it is in today's Bihar

At first glance, there is nothing that sets Pithori Nandlal, a village in Saran district some 100 km north of Patna, apart from any other village in Bihar. Lush green fields, cattle on the roads, rows of thatched roofs punctured by a few pucca houses suggesting a dash of prosperity here and there — on the surface, it all appears ordinary. For the last few days, however, the air in this village has been rife with tension.

Last week, a mob killed three men in Pithori Nandlal on the suspicion of being cattle thieves. The police claim the villagers caught them red-handed while they were stealing a buffalo and some goats, and thrashed them with bamboo sticks and iron rods. The victims have been identified as Naushad Qureshi, Raju Nat and Bides Nat. While Qureshi was Muslim, Raju and Bides belonged to the Nat scheduled tribe group. Their assailants belong to a scheduled caste.

Naushad Qureshi’s family says he was hired by the Nats to ferry the cattle they had bought, but he was lynched for being a Muslim

Suspicious and on the edge, people are wary of speaking about the incident to outsiders. “Ask them, they know everything,” says a young man, pointing to the team of policemen standing on guard at the entrance of the village.

It takes a while before the villagers tentatively come around to tell their stories.

“They were Nat. Stealing is their profession. They first tried to buy Budh Ram’s buffalo in the morning for Rs 15,000, but he refused. Later in the night they tried to steal it, but they were caught,” says another young man, who, like the one before him, does not want to be named.

When asked who killed them, no one speaks. “Budh Ram, his wife and all adult members of his family have been arrested,” says Narayan Ram, a villager. “Ram’s aged mother died on Sunday and there is no one in the family to perform the last rites. We are all afraid of retaliation from the Nats. Why don’t you ask them about these things?” he adds.

Relatives of Raju and Bides Nat, who were from a scheduled tribe. Their assailants are from a scheduled caste group

The story, however, is entirely different at Paigambarpur, the village to which the victims belonged. “It’s a premeditated murder. My father was no cattle thief,” says Naushad’s son, Jauhar Hussian, an engineering student at Hyderabad. “Raju and Bides hired him to ferry the cattle that they bought but they were ambushed and killed. My father was killed because he was Muslim.”

Naushad’s elder brother, Mohammad Azad, attends to the people as they arrive to express condolences. “It’s a conspiracy. My brother was an honest man. He had a pick-up van and looked after his family,” the sexagenarian says. “Do you think a thief would be able to send his son to an engineering college?”

The family of Raju Nat lives a few kilometres away. “He used to buy cattle from nearby villages and sell them at cattle fairs around Saran,” says his grieving widow, Kanti Devi. She maintains it was a planned murder and blames a resident of Pithouri Nandlal who she says called him several times on July 18, asking him to buy his two buffalos. “My husband went to meet him and a deal was struck for Rs 35,000. My husband gave an advance of Rs 15,000 and promised to give the rest in the morning when he would take possession of the buffalos. He hired Qureshi to ferry the animals and took Bides with him. But he didn’t return,” she says, sobbing.

The pick-up van belonging to Naushad Qureshi which was attacked by the mob

She is not clear about the motive. “That’s for the police to investigate. They (residents of Pithori Nandlal) hatched a conspiracy and the police are not doing anything about it,” says Munna Nat, a family friend and Baniyapur block president of the Mahadalit cell of the Janata Dal (United).

Traditionally, the Nats used to earn a living as entertainers and jugglers, but now most of them work as daily wagers, agricultural labour and cattle traders.

The families of Qureshi and Raju Nat say the police have not visited them to record their statements. The police, meanwhile, are treating it as a case of theft. “Two FIRs (first information reports) have been filed in the matter. One by Qureshi and Raju Nat’s families and the other by Budh Ram. In all, eight people have been arrested,” says Dayanand Sah, the sub-inspector at Baniyapur police station.

The Nats used to earn a living as entertainers and jugglers, but now most of them work as daily wagers, agricultural labour and cattle traders

The state government has refused to label the incident as mob lynching.

“It’s an unfortunate incident, but it shouldn’t be seen as mob lynching,” Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told journalists last week. “Those killed were Nats and those who killed them belong to downtrodden classes. The incident occurred when the three were caught red-handed. It led to angry villagers beating them to death,” he said.

Within two days of the chief minister suggesting that the matter should not be viewed as mob lynching, Saran Superintendent of Police Har Kishor Rai declared it to be a case of theft and unnatural death. The police also presented the post-mortem report, which listed the cause of death as “heart failure”.

Some maintain that the reason the state government is not acting in the Saran case is because of the caste equations at play here. “This is a unique case. Here, both the victims and the perpetrators belong to the downtrodden classes. Ravidas are considered among the most backward castes in the social hierarchy,” says an official who requests not to be named. “However, they consider themselves superior to the Nats, which is a scheduled tribe. Ravidas are considered to be Nitish Kumar’s supporters.”

The first step towards solving a problem is recognising that there is one,” says N K Chaudhary, professor and former head of the economics department at Patna University.

“There is one incident of mob violence happening practically every day in the state, but the Nitish Kumar government isn’t interested in doing anything about it,” he says, adding that this is an indication that law and order in Bihar is slipping.

There have been three incidents of mob violence in Bihar this week. A mob killed a man for allegedly firing at a local businessman in Jamui on July 24.

A day later, a crowd beat up two women in Rohtas district on the suspicion that they were trying to kidnap children. However, the state government has not termed any of these incident as mob violence.

Disturbed by the trend, the Supreme Court had issued a show cause notice to Bihar along with nine other states.

“Maintaining law and order is the sole USP of the Nitish Kumar,” says a senior official of the Bihar Police. “If you take that away, then what is he left with?”