Inside the badlands of western UP
LAWLESS The region is known for its lush sugarcane fields. Back in the day, contractors would hire musclemen to run factories that led to turf war and started the circle of crime
Inside the Kairana police station in western Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district, inspector Bhagwat Singh is practising hard to get used to writing with his left hand. Singh has returned to office after three months. He was shot thrice in a shootout – the bullets hit his hand, abdomen and leg.
But the physical discomfort fades under the satisfaction of shooting dead Mohammed Shabir, one of Uttar Pradesh’s top gangsters wanted for murdering three police officers, on a cold night on January 2.
Singh’s team lost a constable in the shootout that night.
“This night is safe. You can walk freely in Kairana, Muzaffarnagar or any part of western Uttar Pradesh. All the hardcore criminals are underground (hiding) or behind bars,” Singh said. This sense of security stems from a heightened crackdown on criminals, a step chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s government ordered in keeping with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) promise during the assembly elections last year to reduce the crime rate in India’s most populous state.
Though there are critics of the policy, at least 50 criminals were killed in shootouts with police since the BJP rule began in March last year. More than 90% of the deaths were reported in western UP. According to police records, more than 1,000 criminals have surrendered till endMarch 2018, as against less than 100 the previous year.
“Till a few years ago criminals would stop your car and rob you. This was western UP before this government came to power,” inspector Singh said.
The police station on Singh’s watch is on the outskirts of Kairana, a small town infamous for its chilling crimes and history of communal riots.
Kairana is within UP police’s Meerut zone, comprising nine districts of western UP bordering New Delhi, Haryana and Uttarakhand. It’s the “Wild West”.
“Western UP was a problem area back then too. We weren’t able to control the crimes fully there. With kidnappings, highway robberies, road holdups, murder, extortion and all sorts of organised gangs, it was UP’s Wild West in the true sense,” said retired IPS officer Prakash Singh, who was the director general of police between 1990 and 1993.
The reasons behind the region’s high crime rate are hidden in history and the lush sugarcane fields dotting the countryside — acres upon acres of plantations visible after crossing the concrete jungle of Ghaziabad for any traveller moving eastward from New Delhi.
This is the sugar belt of northern India, with more than 50 factories and the oldest from the early 1900s.
In the early years, the wealthy factory owners hired local contractors to run the plants, thereby spawning the thekedari or contract system. “The contractors hired local musclemen to run the facto- ries. They created their turf and this led to turf battles. And this led to crimes,” additional superintendent of police Ranvijay Singh said.
The historically martial nature of the region’s inhabitants played its part too in the spurt in violent crimes, the officer said. “These districts always reported gang wars and violence. Remember, this is where (Meerut) the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny started. This is where Indian soldiers challenged the British. The soldiers were mostly locals. Most locals do not forget that. They challenge when they feel they have been wronged. When they take up arms, they cross the other side of the law and get into crime.”
A reporter in Muzaffarnagar blamed politics, caste divide and communal animosity for the rise in crimes. From the 1987 Hashimpura riots in Meerut 1987 to the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013, there have always been inter-faith and intercaste tensions in the region.
“Communities have always clashed in western UP. Not just Hindu-Muslims but Dalits against Thakurs or Gujjars against other castes. This has always been a boiling pot. A dreaded gangster in the early 1980s, Mahendra Fauji, was a Gujjar and was the rival of gangsters from Yadav and Tyagi communities,” the reporter said, asking not to be named.
“The criminals are so politically connected that Fauji’s encounter in 1994 in Bulandshar (in western UP) caused a major rift between the then ruling Samajwadi party and the Bahujan Samaj party,” he added.
The BSP chief demanded removal of senior superintendent of police OP Singh, who led the shootout that killed Fauji. Singh is Uttar Pradesh’s director general of police now.
“Every big gangster here is linked to a politician. The mix of castes and faiths helped politicians divide people and encourage criminals, who were their musclemen. Western UP criminals had considerable influence and did not