Rabri Devi had not even been Chief Minister of Bihar for five months. Lalu Yadav was in prison in connection with the fodder scam. The government was being run with outside support from the Congress party. It was another matter that all its 29 MLAs had been made ministers.
Jehanabad district in Bihar. The year was 1997 and the date 1 December. It was around 9 PM on a cold winter night. Thirty to thirty-five people were talking as they moved quickly towards the Son River. They carried guns, swords, sickles, and sticks in their hands.
Within minutes, they reached the riverbank. Two or three men shouted – “Is there any boatman?”
A boatman came running but froze on seeing the armed group. Trembling, he said, “Sir… where do you want to go at this hour? All the boats are tied up at the shore.”
“Then untie them, we need to cross the river. Call two or three more boatmen,” said a middle-aged man of about 40–45 years, adjusting the gun belt on his shoulder.
The boatman shouted out, “Hey, are you listening… the gentlemen need to go across, bring the boat quickly.”
Within minutes, four boatmen arrived with two more boats. Everyone boarded the three boats. After an hour’s journey, the boats reached the other side. There, fifty to sixty armed men were already waiting for them.
Their numbers had now swelled to about a hundred. They formed a circle and began talking amongst themselves. Then one man said, “Finish off these boatmen, otherwise the secret will be revealed.”
Ten to fifteen people grabbed the five boatmen. Their hands and feet were tied. A man around thirty-five years old picked up a sword and struck it against a boatman’s neck. He screamed. The attacker struck his neck again, this time with force. The boatman’s neck was severed and hung limply.
Now five or six others from the crowd attacked the remaining boatmen with swords. The boatmen pleaded, crying, “Sir… we have small children. Who will take care of them? We will not say a word to anyone. Please don’t kill us.”
The attackers did not stop. They beheaded the remaining four boatmen as well. Blood spread through the boats. The sand on the riverbank was stained with blood.
One attacker said, “Shall we pack these @#$%% in a sack?”
A thin, middle-aged man spoke up, “Oh no, throw them all onto the shore. The more bodies are seen, the better it will be.”
Now the group of attackers moved ahead. In front of them lay a village named Laxmanpur Bathe. One part of it was a Dalit settlement, while the other had the houses of the upper castes. The Dalit homes were made of mud, with many not even having doors.
It was now 10:30 at night. The attackers quickly moved towards the Dalit settlement. They split into groups of ten to fifteen and began entering different houses, firing as they went.
Three people were sleeping in the verandah of one house – a husband, wife, and their daughter. Hearing the gunshots, the husband jumped over the wall and fled, but his wife and daughter were caught. One attacker pointed a gun at them, but another said from behind, “Don’t waste bullets. Cut them with a sword.”
The attacker struck the woman in the chest with a sword. She collapsed to the ground with a thud. Another attacker struck her neck three or four times, severing it.
Meanwhile, one of the attackers grabbed the daughter. She began to tremble and pleaded, “Brother, please don’t kill me… let me go… I am falling at your feet.”
The attacker, gritting his teeth, said, “@#%^& should I let you live to testify?”
He slapped the girl hard three or four times, pushed her to the ground, and began raping her. She screamed continuously. Then a second attacker also raped her. Afterwards, he shot her in the lower part of her body before moving on.
A forty to forty-five-year-old woman was hiding in a corner with her husband, brother-in-law, and two children, paralysed with fear. An attacker struck her husband with a sword, severing his hand, which hung loosely as he fell to the ground, writhing in pain.
When her brother-in-law and the two children tried to escape, other attackers opened fire from behind. One was shot in the chest, another in the head. All three died on the spot.
The woman could not bear to see her own sons murdered in front of her eyes. She began screaming loudly. At that moment, one of the attackers struck her husband’s neck with a sword, splattering blood on the walls. Another attacker chopped off his limbs. Within minutes, he lay motionless.
Four or five attackers now dragged the woman into the courtyard. She screamed frantically. One attacker said, “Hey, this @#$%% is screaming too much. Stuff her mouth with a cloth.”
One of them tore a towel and stuffed it into her mouth. Two or three attackers began pulling off her sari. Each attacker then took turns raping her. Meanwhile, one said, “Make sure she doesn’t survive.”
The attacker shot the woman two or three times in the chest before leaving.
An hour later, the man who had escaped by climbing over the wall returned home, crying. He switched on his torch and saw his wife’s mutilated body lying in the verandah. Blood was everywhere. His daughter’s body lay inside the room, blood flowing from her chest and lower waist.
He sat holding his head, then staggered to his feet. Moving forward, he switched on the torch again. In another room lay the bodies of his two sons and two grandsons. And in the courtyard lay the naked body of his daughter-in-law. In a frenzy, he screamed and ran out of the house. He went to a neighbour’s house, where he saw the bodies of five people scattered.
Some had been shot, others hacked with swords and axes. The breasts of a 25–30-year-old woman had been cut off. Her stomach was slashed open. Nearby lay a blood-soaked piece of flesh. He screamed, “Oh, she was pregnant. The monsters killed her too.”
After a while, cries and wails began to echo from many houses. Chaos spread in the village as it became known that a massacre had taken place. Dozens of people had been slaughtered. In many homes, no one was left alive. In some houses, as many as eight or nine people had been killed. Bodies were scattered in the village streets.
Around 2 a.m., Aurangabad’s SP Gupteshwar Pandey reached Laxmanpur Bathe with four policemen. They began counting the bodies, house to house. One, two, three, four… By the time they counted thirty-four, they were out of breath. Even in the freezing night, sweat dripped from their foreheads.
Composing himself, the SP said to a constable, “Call the police headquarters.”
The constable made the call and handed him the phone. The SP said, “A major massacre has occurred here. Send a large police force.”
By 5 a.m., police from Mehandia station arrived at the village. Officer-in-charge SI Akhilesh Singh and SI Ajay Kumar counted the bodies one by one. Fifty-three people had been killed. All were Dalits – 32 women and 10 children. Many of the children were under two years old. Five women and girls were found with barely any clothes on their bodies.
This was Bihar’s largest Dalit massacre. When President K. R. Narayanan heard about it, he said, “This is a matter of national shame.”
This was the period when four major massacres had taken place in Bihar in just five years. In 1992, 34 Bhumihars were killed in Bara village of Gaya district. The Maoist organisation MCC was accused, and most of the accused were Dalits. It was said that Laxmanpur Bathe was revenge for that massacre.
The morning after the massacre, i.e., 2 December, police from Arwal and Jehanabad also arrived at Laxmanpur Bathe. Journalists began to reach the village. The whole area had turned into a cantonment. SI Akhilendra Singh asked, “Who committed this massacre? Did anyone see the attackers?”
From the crowd, a man named Binod Paswan stepped forward, crying out, “Sir… I have seen it.”
SI – “What did you see? Tell us the whole story.”
Binod began, “Last night at 10:30 p.m., we were about to sleep after dinner. Suddenly, firing started. I had just got up from the cot when 10–15 people entered the house. Everyone was armed. I jumped over the wall and ran. I hid on the roof of a house.
“For half an hour, there was chaos in the village. Then I saw about 100 people leaving the village, shouting slogans: ‘Hail Ranveer Baba! Hail Ranveer Baba!’ They all had weapons and were carrying torches. In the torchlight, I recognised 26 people. Nineteen of them were from this very village.”
“What did you see next?”
Wiping his tears, Binod said, “After the Ranveer Sena people left, I went back to my house. There lay the bodies of my wife, daughter-in-law, son, and grandchildren. Seven of my family members were gone. After a while, I began to hear cries from other houses.
“I went to Shiv Bachchan Ram’s house – there I saw five bodies. Then I went to Ganesh Rajbanshi’s house – three bodies. From Debesh Rajbanshi’s house – five bodies, from Laxman Rajbanshi’s house – six, and from Yaduni’s house – six bodies. I could not gather the courage to go further.”
“Where did those people go?”
“They headed north, crossed the Son river, and moved towards Chotki Kharsun village. After that, I don’t know where they went.”
“Was there any previous enmity with them?”
“No, no… there was never any fight before. We worked in their fields. They just thought we were supporters of CPI-ML. The Ranveer Sena people have enmity with them.”
Meanwhile, a woman around 34–35 years old came running. She said, “Sir, they not only killed, but also violated the honour of many girls. There was a girl named Prabha in the neighbouring house.
“She was supposed to go to her in-laws’ house in two or three days. I saw that she had no clothes on her body. Her breasts had been cut off. Blood was flowing from the lower part of her body. I saw with my own eyes that at least five girls had their breasts cut off. They had no clothes on. They were shot in the lower part of their bodies.”
This woman’s name was Suraj Mani. She later told all this to a human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch.
Arwal police station’s DSP Shridhar Mandal was appointed as the investigating officer for this massacre. Upon reaching the village, he sent a message to the Jehanabad District Magistrate: “Send a team of doctors to the village immediately for post-mortems.”
At 11 a.m., the investigating officer conducted raids at various places. Three bodies were found on the southern bank of the Son river. Two were found on the northern bank. Blood was scattered on the sand at several spots. A boat was also discovered, stained with blood. The police seized the blood-soaked sand, the empty cartridges, and the bodies. In total, 58 bodies were found – 53 in the village and five near the Son river.
At 3 p.m., a case was registered at Mehandia police station under several serious sections of the IPC, including murder and kidnapping. More than 100 people linked to the banned upper-caste militia Ranveer Sena were named as accused in this case.
On 2 December, SI Ajay Kumar sent the FIR and post-mortem reports to the Jehanabad District Court through a special messenger. That same day, the police wanted to perform the last rites of the bodies, but the villagers resisted. They did not allow the police to take even a single body. Over 100 police personnel stayed in the village overnight.
The next day, 3 December, at 5 p.m., Bihar’s Chief Minister Rabri Devi arrived at the village. Shortly after, SP MP Phoolan Devi also reached. Phoolan, a leader of the Mallah community, was the same woman who had once been a feared bandit but had surrendered and entered politics. After Rabri Devi’s persuasion, the villagers finally agreed to the cremations.
Two tractors were brought in. One by one, 58 bodies were loaded onto them. Six pyres were prepared near the Son river, and a collective cremation was carried out.
On 3 December, the first arrest was made at 5:25 p.m. and the second at 6:15 p.m. A double-barrelled gun was also recovered from one of the accused’s houses. Both were taken to the police station. On 5 December, two more accused were caught. On 7 December, seven more were arrested. All were sent on remand.
Meanwhile, investigating officer Shridhar Mandal began to face allegations of negligence. As pressure mounted, on 10 December, Shridhar Mandal was removed and Patna’s DSP Mirza Maqsood was appointed as the new investigating officer.
Just a month after the massacre, Naxalites killed nine upper-caste individuals in a village called Rampur-Chauram in Jehanabad district. These men were associated with the Ranveer Sena. The killings were said to be an act of revenge for the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre.
On 11 December, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Laxmanpur Bathe. Returning to Patna the same day, he said at a press conference, “I was stopped from going to Bathe. I was prevented from meeting the families. But I still reached there and met the people. I listened to their concerns. I will convey their demands to the President. Under the present circumstances, a fair Lok Sabha election in Bihar is not possible.”
No Hearing in the Sessions Court for Nine Years, Nitish Dissolved the Inquiry Commission After Becoming CM
On 27 February 1998, a chargesheet was filed against 50 accused on the basis of testimony from 152 people. On 6 January 1999, the accused were presented in Jehanabad district court, but no hearing took place for ten months. In October 1999, the Patna High Court transferred the case to the Patna sessions court — yet there was no hearing there for the next nine years either.
In 2005, there was a change of power in Bihar. Nitish Kumar became Chief Minister from the NDA alliance and dissolved the Amir Das Commission within the first few months of taking office. This was the very commission that Rabri Devi had set up in December 1997 after the massacre, headed by former Patna High Court judge Justice Amir Das.
This commission had questioned around 700 people, including BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, C.P. Thakur, Sushil Modi, and RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari.
Senior journalist Kumar Narendra Singh writes in his book The Rise and Development of Private Armies in Bihar: “Left parties had at that time complained to the Governor that some leaders of RJD and BJP had links with the Ranveer Sena. It was only after this that the government formed the Amir Das Commission.”
7 April 2010, 26 accused convicted in police custody outside Patna Session Court. Source: Library
7 April 2010, 26 accused convicted in police custody outside Patna Session Court. Source: Library
26 Convicted After 11 Years, 16 Sentenced to Death and 10 to Life Imprisonment
Nearly 11 years after the massacre, the trial against 44 accused finally began in the Patna Sessions Court in December 2008. A total of 14 lawyers argued the case — eight on behalf of the government and six for the defence. Of the 152 witnesses, 91 gave their statements before the court.
Representing the victims, government lawyer C.K. Sinha began his arguments: “My Lord… this is not a minor incident. This is a massacre. Fifty-eight people have been brutally killed. These monsters even slaughtered pregnant women and infants. Entire families have been wiped out. These monsters deserve nothing less than the death penalty.”
Defence lawyer Sunil Kumar interrupted: “My Lord, this is a false and baseless accusation. The attack happened in the dark of night. The attackers came from outside. In such circumstances, how can anyone identify who committed the murders? There is no scientific evidence.”
At that point, government lawyer C.K. Sinha replied: “My Lord, not only outsiders but villagers were also involved in the killings. Our witnesses saw their faces in the torchlight. They recognised them by their voices. A person can easily identify the voices of their fellow villagers.”
On 7 April 2010, the Patna Sessions Court termed it a “rarest of rare” case and sentenced 16 convicts to death and 10 to life imprisonment. A fine of ₹50,000 each was also imposed. The remaining 18 accused were acquitted.
7 April 2010, people of Laxmanpur Bathe village listening to the news on the radio after the Patna Session Court’s verdict. Source: Library
7 April 2010, people of Laxmanpur Bathe village listening to the news on the radio after the Patna Session Court’s verdict. Source: Library
High Court Acquits All Accused — Police Still List Brahmeshwar Mukhiya as ‘Absconder’
On 9 October 2013, the Patna High Court overturned the Sessions Court verdict and acquitted all 26 accused. Delivering the judgment, Justices V.N. Sinha and A.K. Lal observed:
“The FIR was lodged 24 hours after the incident. It took three days for it to reach the Jehanabad District Court, though the distance from Mehandia police station to Jehanabad is only 50 kilometres. The investigating officer failed to trace where the assailants went after crossing the Son river. He was replaced after 10 days, by which time it was too late — the footprints had been erased. Apart from witness statements, the police produced no strong evidence. The appellants must therefore be given the benefit of the doubt.”
Brahmeshwar Mukhiya, the Ranvir Sena chief, had also been named as an accused. Yet, the police never produced him in court, claiming he was absconding — even though he was in jail between 2002 and 2011.
No Supreme Court Hearing for 11 Years — By 2025, All Accused Reported Dead
On 13 October 2013, the Bihar government filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the acquittal. The case was listed for the first time in January 2014 but was never heard. In 2023, it was listed six times, but hearings were repeatedly postponed.
On 1 January 2025, the Bihar government informed the court that five accused had died. Three months later, in April 2025, the defence lawyer stated that all 26 accused had passed away. Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna then directed the Bihar government to submit a status report and adjourned the matter.
13 October 2013, a family of the accused in the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre expressing happiness after the Patna High Court’s decision. Source: Library
13 October 2013, a family of the accused in the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre expressing happiness after the Patna High Court’s decision. Source: Library
(This true story is based on police charge sheets, court judgments, statements of villagers, various books, and international reports. It is written in the form of a story using creative liberty.)
Indrabhushan Mishra
Courtesy : Bhaskar English
Note: This news is originally published on https:/bhaskarenglish.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights