Battle for Justice and Democracy

The acquittal of the 26 people found guilty for the Laxmanpur-Bathe massacre of 1997 by the Patna High Court is a grave miscarriage of justice. This article traces the events of that time and the manner in which the ruling of the sessions court, finding these accused guilty, was overturned. It argues that Bihar does not witness a “caste war”, rather it is a situation where mainstream political parties have supported and defended sustained violence against the dalits and lower castes, the landless and the powerless by the likes of the Ranveer Sena.

For Batan Bigha, 1 December 1997 was a long night of terror. Fifty-eight people of the “dalit tola” of the twin villages of Laxmanpur-Bathe, on the banks of the Sone river in Bihar, were massacred by a contingent of the Ranveer Sena, an organised landlord army with powerful political links.