April 6, 1998

The blinding of four persons by villagers in Palamu district is a grim reminder of the state's lawlessness.

By Bharat Desai and Sanjay KumarJha

The mob of around 200 villagers of Nagawan in Palamu district of south Bihar thought its job was done. As darkness fell on March 19, four persons lay flat on the ground, beaten with cudgels and stones for a good half hour. Then suddenly someone came running with an old car battery, shouting, "Inki ankhen phod do (Puncture their eyes)." A syringe was pulled out and sulphuric acid from the battery was squirted into the eyes of the screaming victims. The task was easier in one of the cases -- Rustom Hawari (35), better known as kana, or one-eyed Jack.

A horrific reminder of the infamous Bhagalpur blindings of the '70s -- when criminals were blinded by the police in a similar fashion -- the incident has shaken the state again. The prime target in this case was Rustom. He was allegedly having a love affair with 18-year-old Sangeeta, the niece of Jorawar Ram, former Janata Dal MP who recently joined the BJP. The other three who lost their eyes in the attack -- Ehsan Hawari (23), Sakruddin Hawari (25) and Shahid Hawari (24) -- happened to be accompanying Rustom when he was ambushed. And among the 27 persons who have been taken into custody are Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Shiv Shanker Mehto and Sangeeta's brother Sanjay Ram.

Denying charges of his involvement in the incident, Jorawar has claimed that he does not get along with Sangeeta's family. Last year, however, Rustom was accused of attempting to murder Jorawar's wife, following which he was even jailed.

Married with six children, Rustom also faces other charges, including kidnapping Sangeeta two years ago. In fact, Rustom used to frequent Sangeeta's house as he was a good friend of Sanjay. The two have even been named as co-accused in several cases of extortion in the past. But when Sanjay discovered Rustom's relationship with his sister, things changed. The family stopped entertaining Rustom and insisted that he keep away from Sangeeta. "I did not love the girl," says a distraught Rustom. "She used to come to me because her parents beat her for talking to me." In 1988 too, when Rustom was injured in a bomb explosion in Ayodhya, the police accused him of planting bombs to foment trouble during the Ram Shila Pujan campaign. "The bomb was hurled at me, the police tried to frame me," says Rustom, adding that he was also charged with attempt to murder because Sangeeta's family wanted to make life miserable for him.

Rustom's claims have few takers as Sangeeta is believed to have spent several months in his house last year. Says Palamu Deputy Commissioner M.W.A. Anjum: "Investigations have confirmed a relationship between Sangeeta and Rustom." According to one version, on March 19, Rustom with his associates was heading for Majhgawan village to meet his lawyer Ram Lal and discuss the kidnapping case when he was confronted by some persons who accused him of being a thief. When Rustom informed them that he was on his way to meet Ram Lal, he was told that he could meet him in Nagawan itself. Not realising what was in store for them, Rustom and his friends came to Nagawan, where the mob was waiting to pounce on them. "Instead of blinding the boys, it would have been better if they had been killed," says Rustom's father Nizamuddin. "It is not Rustom's fault that the girl kept running to him for help."

The villagers, on their part, maintain they were keeping vigil in view of the spurt in thefts when they saw Rustom and 12 of his friends. They were convinced that Rustom was coming to the village to commit a theft or kidnap Sangeeta. So they confronted him. While most of his friends fled, Rustom and three others stayed back and were subsequently beaten up. "We don't know who blinded them," one of them claimed.

To complicate matters, the girl's family has given a communal twist to the incident. Defending the arrested, most of whom belong to the OBC Barai caste, Sangeeta's relatives claim the maximum number of thefts have taken place in the houses of the Barais. They feel the villagers' action was justified as Rustom was involved in a number of crimes, theft being one of them. Dismissing the charge that Sangeeta had a relationship with Rustom, they say he was out to malign her. Sangeeta too denies having an affair with Rustom or visiting his house on her own. "He took me away forcibly," she says.

However, Anjum says there is reason to believe that the attack on Rustom took place not simply because of theft. SP Ravindra Kumar Singh too feels the theft theory doesn't hold much water. In view of the conflicting versions, an all-party committee headed by former minister Puran Chand has been set up to probe into the incident.

And while the investigation is underway, doctors at the Ranchi Medical College Hospital, where the victims lie listless with bandages on their eyes, say the chances of the victims regaining their sight are remote. As fate would have it, one of the victims, Ehsan, who works in Haryana, was in Palamu on vacation. "I had nothing to do," he says, his face expressionless, "so I accompanied Rustom." Ehsan, like the rest, will now have to make do with the Rs 1,000 the Government has offered by way of compensation. It's not just theywho will be staring into a dark future. After Bhagalpur, Palamu is an indicator that Bihar as a whole may have become a victim of its own lawlessness.

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