All these developments are link in the same chain. While the state government failed to provide justice to those killed 16 years back, it could not protect the man who led the Sena, which has been accused of a series of massacres in Bihar, especially in 1990s.

Though the media underplayed the whole series of developments till the killing of Mukhiyaji himself, the issue was quite serious and thus drew international attention too.Ranvir Sena was founded in September 1994 in Belaur village of Udwantnagar block by Brahmeshwar Singh of Khopira panchayat. Though it is called a private upper caste army, in this part of Bihar it is essentially dominated by Bhumihars. Of all the private armies of Bihar formed in 1980s and 1990s such as Kuer Sena, Sunlight Sena, Lorik Sena, etc this was the most ruthless and organized outfit with connections in bureaucracy and police as well.

That was the reason for its survival. While the earlier Senas were wiped out by the then MCC and now CPI (Maoist) and CPI ML (Liberation) Ranvir Sena not only survived but grew stronger. In tit-for-tat in the then Central Bihar, (then Jhakhand part was called as South Bihar) it chose to target the innocent Dalit women and children instead of Maoists cadres and Red Army of Liberation.

Since they suspect the Dalits of being sympathetic towards the Left extremists they singled out their family members as they were soft targets. For example on Jan 25, 1999 they massacred two dozen Dalit men, women and children in Shankarbigha village of Jehanabad district when the then President K R Narayan, himself a Dalit, was delivering the Republic Day eve speech on television and radio.

The timing was very important. Hours later, they through a Press release, justified the massacre of children and women, some of them pregnant, on the plea that sanp ka bachcha sanp hota hai (serpent will breed serpent). They repeated the massacre at Narayanpur village a fortnight later forcing the then Vajpayee government to dismiss the then Rabri Devi government and impose President’s Rule. It is other thing that it was re-instated on March 8, 1999 after the NDA failed to get majority in the Rajya Sabha.

Ten days later, on March 18, 34 Bhumihars––between the age of 15 and 45––were slaughter in retaliation of series of Dalit-hunting. This was done by MCC in Senari village of Jehanabad district. The last big massacre by Ranvir Sena took place in June 2000 when about 35 Dalits and backwards, including Yadavs, were killed at Miapur in Aurangabad district. Among other infamous massacres was the one committed by Ranvir Sena at Laxmanpur-Bathe village in Jehanabad on Dec 1, 1997 in which 61 Dalits were killed. It could do all this in spite of the fact that it was banned in 1995.

The problem with the present Janata Dal (United)-BJP government in Bihar is that many of the sympathizers of Ranvir Sena are their voters. While in the past the situation was quite contrary. Though the then Lalu-Rabri regime too failed to protect the Dalits it was alleged by Sena men that the Dalits get state support and protection against them. Brahmeshwar Singh himself continued to elude the police till August 29, 2002 when he was arrested in Patna.

In fact his acquittal from the court and release from jail last July proved costly. Perhaps, he was more safe behind bars. The advent of Nitish Kumar and subsequent weakening of CPI ML in the successive Assembly elections––it failed to open its account in 2010 poll––made Ranvir Sena somewhat irrelevant. But with the killing of its leader now it is to be seen what impact the incident will have on the state politics.

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