Ranvir Sena

Ranvir Sena is a private milita mainly based in Bihar, India. This group is thought to be formed by Bhumihar landlords. It carries out actions against Dalits and other members of the scheduled caste community as well as the Naxalites. The Ranvir Sena have been connected to many murders, rapes and thefts. It has, on several occasions, been accused of human rights abuses. It is regarded as a terrorist group and classified accordingly by the Government of India. Normally, the Ranvir Sena say themselves that they commited their crimes. The Ranvir Sena has committed violent acts against Naxalite sympathisers and other members of the militant communist party. The Bihar State government banned the Ranvir Sena in July 1995 and since then the Ranvir Sena remains proscribed.

History

Ranvir sena formed by Rajputs. The name Ranvir comes from Ranvir Baba, a supposed mythical figure, and Sena is a Hindi word (origin: Sanskrit sena, meaning 'army'). As the legend goes, during the late 19th century, Ranvir Baba, a retired military man and a resident of Belaur village in Bhojpur district, protected the rights of the Bhumihars against the Rajputs. It is believed that Bhumihars asserted their power in Bhojpur because of his efforts. This gave the Ranvir Sena its name when it was founded decades later under the leadership of Brahmeshwar Singh 'Mukhiya'.

It is claimed by the Ranvir Sena, that it came into existence primarily to counter the influence of various Naxalite groups and the Communist Party of India, Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) Liberation in central Bihar. However the Indian government considers the group a right-wing extremist group, who serve the needs of wealthy landowners. It was founded in September 1994 in Belaur village of Udwantnagar block, Bhojpur district following the merger of private caste armies like Savarna Liberation Army and the Sunlight Sena. The forerunners to the Ranvir Sena in Bhojpur district were the Brahmarshi Sena and Kuer Sena, Kisan Morcha and Ganga Sena. These groups were smaller in size and operated with a limited area. They could not sustain for long and had withered away due to repeated Naxalite onslaughts.

Dharichan Chaudhary of Belaur founded Ranvir Sena. Its founding and continuing commander is Brahmeshwar Singh of Khopira village.

During the 1995 Bihar state elections, they killed 50 people.

They killed 10 workers in Haibaspur on the 23 March 1997. They wrote the name of the organisation in blood on the village well before they left. Most of the people Ranvir Sena killed that night belonged to families allegedly supporting Party Unity, a communist group.

They killed 16 children, 27 women and 18 men with guns on the 1st December 1997. The same night, they raped, disfigured and shot to death 5 teenage girls. Ranvir Sena said about the killings:

"We kill children because they will grow up to become Naxalites. We kill women because they will give birth to Naxalites."

After, they killed 8 low caste people who had ferried them across the river after the attack.

On January 25, 1999, there was a massacre of 22 dalit men, women and children by Ranvir Sena in the village of Shankarbigha, Jehanabad due to their alleged Naxalite allegiance. There was another massacre two weeks later in the neighbouring village of Narayanpur, where Ranvir Sena killed twelve lower-caste people.

Police and politician involvement

Some politicians are members of Ranvir Sena and some policemen have helped them on their raids. For example, in a Ranvir Sena raid in Ekwari, a village in Bihar, in April 2007, policemen opened the doors of Dalit villagers so the Ranvir Sena could go inside instead of protecting the villagers as they were supposed to. Once inside, the Sena members killed 8 Dalits. Chandradev Verma, former member of Janata Dal Member of Parliament for Arrah put legalising the the Ranvir Sena as one of his campaign points in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections.

Area of Operation

From Bhojpur district where it was formed, over a period of time, the Ranvir Sena spread to Jahanabad, Patna, Rohtas, Aurangabad, Gaya, Bhabhua and Buxar districts. It mobilises the landed gentry in these districts against the People's War Group (PWG), the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the CPI-ML (Liberation).

Organisation

The Ranvir Sena is highly organized, has extensive influence among landowners in its areas of operation, and is supposedly well-endowed with financial resources.

Ranvir Sena cadres are militarily better-organised and are better-paid than any of the private armies of the past. The cadres operate mostly underground while their leaders are believed to be living in towns.

Brahmeshwar Singh 'Mukhiya', the founder chief of the Ranvir Sena, on whose head the authorities had placed a reward of half a million Indian rupees, was the Supreme Commander of the Ranvir Sena until he was arrested in Patna on August 29, 2002 to face a large number of criminal cases, which included those related to massacres. Initial reports said that Shamsher Bahadur Singh was, on September 7, 2002, appointed new chief of the Ranvir Sena. However, according to a report of December 25, 2002, the chief of the Ranvir Sena was Bhuar Thakur until he was arrested with his two associates on December 24, 2002 near Karnol bridge on the Patna-Sasaram road in Charpokhri, Bhojpur.

Ranvir Kisan Maha Sangh is the political wing that tried to take part in the 2004 elections. The Ranvir Mahila Sangh, a women's wing, has also been created. Its members too have been trained in arms use.