Nine months after the Jawahar Bagh incident that rocked Mathura, High Court orders CBI inquiry

As the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are coming to an end troubles for the Akhilesh Yadav government are increasing.

While the case of gangrape accused minister Gayatri Prajapati is still catching the limelight, the Allahabad High Court has handed over the investigation of the Jawahar Bagh violence in Mathura to the CBI.

What makes things difficult for CM Akhilesh Yadav is that one of the senior most Samajwadi Party leaders is said to be involved in this incident, allegedly providing shelter to the principal accused Ramvriksh Yadav, who is said to have died in the fire.

Although there are no concrete evidence of his death and it is alleged that the Mathura administration helped him in escaping Jawahar Bagh at the behest of the senior SP leader.

CBI TO SUBMIT REPORT IN TWO MONTHS

Quoting the proverb "Rome jalta raha aur Nero bansuri bajata raha" the Allahabad High Court passed strict censure against the inaction of the UP government and instructed the CBI to submit a report in two months.

Following this court order, the divisional authorities of Agra are in a state of panic.

PETITION

The High Court has given this order while hearing a petition filed by Delhi-based BJP leader Ashwani Upadhyay and Mathura-based Vijay Pal Singh Tomar.

The petition says that the principal accused Ramvriksh Yadav had sat on a two-day sit-in at Jawahar Bagh on 1 January 2014 but this sit-in turned into an indefinite and illegal encroachment of Jawahar Bagh by Ramvriksh and his supporters.

The number of his supporters continued to grow and he began running a parallel government inside Jawaharbagh, converting it into his personal fiefdom, all in complete knowledge of the local administration and police. At one time, the population of Jawaharbagh had risen to 2000 men, women and children. There were markets and entertainment facilities in the premises itself and solar panels were providing electricity when the power connections were severed by the administration. The principal accused Ramvriksh had more than 20 cases pending against him.

On 2 June 2016, the administration finally decided to get Jawaharbagh vacated by forcibly evicting Ramvriksh and his supporters. In a confused state of affairs that followed, Circle Officer (City) Mukul Dwivedi and SHO Santosh Yadav were killed by the violent mob and then the entire Jawaharbagh settlement was set upon fire by Ramvriksh Yadav's supporters. Four badly burnt dead bodies were recovered from the charred remains of the settlement and one of them was alleged to be that of Ramvriksh, although a lot of locals did not agree to the police story.

A case was filed against 11 people including Ramvriksh's son while 2500 unknown supporters were also included in the FIR. 104 supporters were later arrested by the police out of which 103 were made accused and chargesheet was filed. 49 of the accused have so far been released on bail.

Deceased CO (City) Mukul Dwivedi's brother Prafful said this entire incident was the result of the administration's neglect and carelessness. He charged that his brother was sent inside the Jawaharbagh alone by his seniors in full knowledge that the supporters of Ramvriksh were very violent and could attack. He said that now the CBI investigation will make everything clear as he had several important papers that he will only hand over to the CBI.

Dwivedi said that his parents Shrichand Dwivedi and mother Manorama Dwivedi had requested the UP CM Akhilesh Yadav to institute a CBI inquiry into the incident but the CM had declined it and handed the case to a retired High Court judge. Mukul's wife Archana Dwivedi is currently posted in Greater Noida as an Officer on Special Duty and is quite pleased with the orders of a CBI inquiry.

Also read: Jawahar Bagh was the personal fiefdom of rebel leader Ramvriksh Yadav