I had the background of having served in Bagaha, often called as mini Chambal due to the presence of several dacoit gangs in the jungles and diaras of the Gandak river. The dacoits of Bagaha had a style of their own, which is rarely seen. I remember that on joining Bagaha I had seen several letters of ransom which had been delivered to the relatives of people kidnapped. The gangs of Champaran did not carry out their activites in disguise. But infact sent letters of ransom with the stamp of their names like ‘Rudal Yadav, Bihar Sarkar’ or ‘Vasudeo Yadav, Bihar Sarkar’. All the gangs of Bagaha had a unique style of suffixing Bihar Sarkar to their names in the stamp or letterheads prepared. Very often the prefix used was ‘Jai Ma Durge’.

The gangs had for long ruled in the areas of their influence, and it was funny to see the use of ‘Bihar Sarkar’ as the suffix, which is exclusively used as a suffix by officers of the state Government. But their influence and fear was so strong that they indeed inspired people to call them as such. Several dacoits had been killed in police encounters earlier in Bagaha, but the problem remained. A famous operation called 'Operation Blackpanther' with a large contingent of Police Force had been organized in early 1980’s.

The model for tackling the dacoits had more or less remained the same since then. After every major incident by the dacoits, there would be combing operations in the jungle and the diaras. The dacoits would disappear for sometime and then resume their activities. There was no end in sight of a complex symptom. Dacoits had actually become a part of the social set up. The dacoits had their families, they possessed land,they had social relations and also organized social get togethers which were at times attended by the political leaders of the area.

To be continued....