Posted on Monday, September 27, 2010 - 12:20 am:

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Here is the story of a man who was till some time back the most wanted dacoit in the border districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. But he has now picked up cudgels against "India's biggest internal security threat" — the Maoists. He has even formed a private militia to counter the Red rebels.

Sixty-plus Ram Bachchan Yadav's story seems straight out of any Bollywood film of the 1970s, in which the hero becomes a daku and, in the end, reforms himself to fight against the evil forces. Yadav's story has now assumed the status of a folklore in over 125 villages near Kaimur hills.

Yadav and his private militia — Kaimur Shanti Sena, comprising about 35 young men — recently had a 16-hour encounter with Maoist guerrillas at Bandha village in the Adhaura police station area. Though Yadav lost two of his men, they forced the rebels to flee from the area.

On August 23, they had another encounter with Maoists at Rehal village for over 18 hours. They captured four of the Maoists, including zonal commander Satendra Singh alias Shekhar Singh. Later, they trekked 50 km of hilly terrain to hand over the Naxals to police. Top on the rebels' hit list, Yadav alias Pehalwanji's village Dumorkon on Kaimur hills had been surrounded by the outlaws on Saturday. So far, they have foiled over six Maoist attacks.

The Kaimur and Rohtas areas have been the hotbed of Naxal activities in Bihar for long as the deep forest and hilly terrain along the Sonebhadra-Chandauli districts of Uttar Pradesh and Palamu-Garwaha district of Jharkhand provide them safe hideouts.

Father of four — two young sons and two married daughters — Yadav has taken the vow to chase away Maoists from the Kaimur-Rohtas hills if police provides him more weapon licences. "With about 20 rifles, 15 double-barrel guns and a handful of young volunteers, he fights Maoists and has successfully kept them at bay," his young son Babban says. "He believes in himself and the cause he is fighting for," he added.

Kaimur district police chief Pradeep Kumar Shrivastva admits that Yadav and his team spell terror among Maoists. "He is on the top of Maoists' hit list," the Kaimur SP said.

Once the dreaded dacoit carrying a reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head, Yadav was released from jail on January 27, 1993, after staying there for six years. He led a peaceful life until the Maoists put a ban on collecting forest wood, tweaks, grazing animals and making milk products. It posed a serious livelihood problem for the Yadavs, most of them milkmen.

However, the immediate provocation came on July 11 this year when Maoists abducted 17 Yadav villagers from Londa and released them only after taking away their guns and other weapons.

Soon after, Yadav formed the Kaimur Shanti Sena and challenged the Maoists.

With 104 cases of crime against his name, Yadav was a terror brigand on the border districts of Kaimur-Rohtas in Bihar and Chandauli-Sonbhadra-Mirzapur in UP in the 1980s. He had also fought against dreaded dacoit gangs of his time, including Mohan Bind, Ramashish Koeri, Dharmendra Kharwar, Misri Kharwar and Ghamandi Singh Kharwar.

The bloody war claimed several dozen lives in the area. When all his rivals got eliminated, Yadav surrendered on September 8, 1987.

Significantly, he got acquitted in 101 cases since no one deposed against him. The remaining three cases were registered 'falsely by the police", says Babban. "He was forced to take up the gun against Maoists," says his aide and commander Sitaram Singh Yadav.

The State police says that of the total 38 districts in Bihar, 31 are Maoist-affected and 20 of them -- including Kaimur and Rohtas - fall in the "most sensitive" category. In the last five years, Bihar witnessed 56 Maoist attacks, in which 125 policemen fell to their bullets.

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