The rise and fall of Ram Briksh Yadav

On a cold winter morning in January 2014, a lanky, bearded man with a band of supporters knocked on the doors of a monastery set up by his late mentor Baba Jai Gurudev off NH-2 near Mathura.

 Ram Briksh Yadav, who ranked among Baba’s favourite disciples, was keen to have his fair share in the monastery–Jai Gurudev Ashram–that had properties to the tune of Rs 12,000 crore spread across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Ram Briksh’s spiritual master passed away in May 2012 after handing over the keys of the empire to his driver Pankaj Yadav. Another claimant to the Baba’s legacy, Umakant Tiwari, too, had fallen out of favour and parted ways a couple of months before the Baba’s death. Tiwari set up his own Ashram in Madhya Pradesh.

Left with nothing, Ram Briksh was trying his luck on the January morning to get a toe hold in the ashram’s sprawling campus near Mathura. After a standoff with the inmates, the district administration directed them to Jawahar Bagh, which was then the designated spot for protests, given its proximity to the collectorate. Little did the administration know that Ram Briksh, who had around 30 supporters then, would gain thousands of followers and convert the 280-acre Jawahar Bagh as his fiefdom with blessings from the powers that be.

The unsuspecting public, mostly from his native eastern Uttar Pradesh, were lured by the propaganda of establishing a Azad Hind Sarkar that would ensure a square meal for every citizen and make available essential commodities at very low rates. To entice the locals, Ram Briksh even sold sugar at a highly-subsidised rate of Rs 20 per kg and vegetables at Rs 5 per kg. The stunt worked as people from neighbouring colonies–mostly comprising government servants–thronged Jawahar Bagh.

Invoking the legacy of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Ram Briksh gathered a sizable following over the next few months. He formed the Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, an organisation whose followers called themselves the Swadhin Bharat Subhas Sena. Their major goals were establishing the Azad Hind Sarkar with Netaji as the “first citizen” and a Azad Hind currency, instead of the rupee. “Initially, there were a few huts, but as the followers increased, Ram Briksh established his own parallel administration complete with arms training camps and a justice delivery system,” said Vijay Singh, an engineering student in the Jail Colony next to Jawahar Bagh.

Luring debt-ridden

According to the police, most of the inmates–there were nearly 3,000 of them at the time of eviction on June 2–were from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Many of them were in deep debts due to a bad harvest and the assurance of food and other essentials lured them to Jawahar Bagh. But they soon realised the going was not easy. Once inside Jawahar Bagh, the inmates could go out depending on the wishes of Ram Briksh and only after leaving behind a family member as ransom.

For the residents of the surrounding colonies, the daily sermons by Ram Briksh over the public address system became a headache. The allurement of cheap sugar and vegetables was soon replaced with regular argument with the inmates, their leader often charging at the locals menacingly surrounded by lathi-wielding followers. Soon, they had the sprawling 280-acre orchard under their control and the favourite morning walk destination of the locals saw children of inmates being trained in warfare and parades by arms-wielding men on roads leading to the settlement.

 “Surprisingly, these poor people had very affluent friends. We saw people coming in fancy cars and SUVs to meet Ram Briksh,” said Vijay Sharma, a government employee residing in one of the colonies surrounding Jawahar Bagh. But as friction with the locals increased, the former president of the Mathura Bar Association, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, got an eviction order from the Allahabad High Court.

 The local intelligence unit sent reports to Lucknow about arms training inside Jawahar Bagh and the possibility of links with the Maoists. But the administration was not particularly tough against the squatters, prompting accusations against the Samajwadi Party government of shielding them.  The proverbial last straw was the attack on the Horticulture Department employees residing inside Jawahar Bagh in the middle of March. Their strong protests spurred the district administration into action. Already under pressure from the Allahabad High Court, the state government also fell in line.

The end, however, was ugly. After adequate warnings to Ram Briksh, the district administration finalised June 3 for forcible eviction. A day earlier, SP (City) Mukul Dwivedi, along with Station Officer Santosh Yadav, visited the area to carry out a rehearsal of the action planned for the next day. As they approached Jawahar Bagh, Ram Briksh’s followers showered bullets and stones at the police. Dwivedi, who was injured in the stone throwing, was lynched by Ram Briksh’s followers, while Santosh Yadav suffered a fatal bullet injury. In the police firing that followed, 27 people were killed, including Ram Briksh.