Mathura cult had its own jail, army and tough laws

The encroachers at Jawahar Bagh, the scene of the deadly violence in Mathura, had set up their own system of administration by establishing “courts and jail barracks” and meted out torture and punishment to inmates for violating their rules as they refused to recognise the Constitution and laws of the country.

“They established a township and food items were provided there. They also started running a government. They started giving punishment to people and torturing them. They set up courts, jail barracks and also set up ‘pravachan’ centres and takhts,” Inspector General Agra Zone, Durga Charan Mishra said.

However, Commissioner Agra Division Pradeep Bhatnagar said three or four groups of armed musclemen had been set up which they termed as ‘battalion’ but said it could not be dubbed as an army.

The IG said, “When a civilian or official went inside they would attack them. They did not allow the followers to step outside under any condition.

“They would be given written permits for going outside and they expected that the followers were only allowed outside if someone from outside came in. They would only be allowed to leave for 1-2 days and would be let inside quietly.”

Police had clashed with about 3,000 followers of obscure sect Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi which had encroached on 260 acres government land. Twenty-four people, including a superintendent of police and a station house officer, were killed in the violence which took place when police went to evict the sect from the land.

On a question if there were people coming there from Naxal areas, the IG said, “Yes, there were people from Chhattisgarh there.”

“Their aim was to take people towards religious extremism or religious terrorism, whatever you may call it. They were planning to start their own currency. They did not want to follow the Constitution or law of the country. They said they would not talk to officials and did not recognise their authority,” he said.

District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar said the plan for the eviction of encroachers from Jawahar Bagh was advanced after they attacked a reccee party lead by SP city Mukul Dwivedi.

The sect, which claimed to be followers of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, had been making strange demands like removal of the president and the prime minister and discontinuation of the Indian currency.