With a pounding heart and a mindful devouring of fear, the people of Dehuli lived a nightmare in real time. It was around 4:30 pm when a gang of 17 dacoits charged into Dehuli village and viciously murdered 24 Dalit people on the 18th of November 1981. They were dressed in khakis (meaning disguised as police officers), which was led by the Radhe-Santosha gang, whose most of the members were from the upper caste Thakur community.
This mass murder kill spree happened after three members of the Dalit community testified against the members of the Radhe-Santosha gang. Let me explain what exactly happened. According to the police, this is a rivalry between two groups which led to violence in Dehuli. It started when Kunwar Pal, a Dalit and a decoit, was part of the same gang as Santosh and Radhe Shyam, who belonged to an upper caste. Pal was having a friendship with an upper caste woman, which was not accepted by Santosh and Radhe; this led to tensions between them. The plot twist comes when Kunwar Pal is mysteriously killed, and many members of the Dalit community believe that Santosh and Radhe Shyam’s gang was responsible for his death. Following this, the police arrested two members of the Radhe-Santosha gang, and they recovered a large number of weapons from them. This led Santosh and Radhe to suspect that the Jatav community (Dalits) in Dehuli had informed the police about this, especially when they saw three Jatav men who were presented as witnesses in the case. This ultimately resulted in violence where the Radhe-Santosha gang took their “revenge”. Among the 24 people who were killed, seven of them were women and two were minors aged six years and two years. According to Assistant District Government Counsel Rohit Shukla, who told that the shootings started when Jwala Prasad, a resident, was shot dead in his potato field. The attackers then went berserk through the village, where they were firing mercilessly, and it lasted for about two and a half hours.
The claims made by the prosecution said that the killings were done on purpose to terrify the villagers. The FIR was filed by a villager named Layak Singh against 20 people. The special court in Mainpuri headed by Judge Indira Singh sentenced Ram Sevak, Kaptan Singh and Rampal to death, all in their 70s, under several IPC sections including Section 302 (murder), Section 307 (attempt to murder), Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), Section 216 (harbouring offender who has escaped from custody or whose apprehension has been ordered), Section 449 (house-trespass to commit offence punishable with death) and Section 450 (house-trespass to commit offence punishable with imprisonment for life). The court termed it as the “rarest of the rare” cases. The court also said, “the crime committed by the accused is a shame on law and order as well as humanity. It is a crime that destroys the social structure”. All of them belonged to the upper caste community (Thakurs) and were part of the Radhe-Santosha gang. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on the three members to be given to the members of the aggrieved families.
In the last 44 years after the massacre took place thereafter 13 accused have died, including their leader Radhe Shayam Singh aka Radhe and Santosh Singh aka Santosha. Apart from the three surviving accused, the other one was Gyan Chand, who was an absconder, and separate proceedings will go for him. The court convicted them on 11th March when Kaptan Singh was out on bail was then taken into custody, and Rampal wanted immunity from attending the proceedings, but his plea was denied, and the court issued a non-bailable warrant against him; later, the decision came on 18th March. In 1984, the Allahabad High Court decided that the case should have proceeded in Allahabad, and the trial continued there for 40 years. After that, the case was shifted to the special Anti-Decoity Court in Mainpuri on October 19th 2024, for further proceedings.
The incident jostled the Congress regime in Uttar Pradesh, where the then Chief Minister VP Singh wanted to submit his resignation because of the protests against the caste-based violence by the opposition in the country. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minste,r was forced to meet with the families who were affected from this incident. The UP government then stationed a Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) in the village, which was there for months as Dalits were timid after the incident and because of several departures of Dalits from the village. The village was later connected with the electricity lines after the commencement of an order from Indira Gandhi. Popular Dalit leader of Congress and erstwhile union minister Babu Jagjivan Ram also visited the village. In response to the tragedy, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the leader of opposition during that time, started a padyatra from Dehuli to Sadupur in Firozabad. Earlier known as Dehuli, it was part of the Mainpuri district, but since the creation of the Firozabad district in 1989, the village has come under its administration.
The family members of the victims have welcomed the decision and were relieved from the decisions by the court. One villager, Amrit Lal, who had lost 12 members of his family in the incident, said that he was very happy that justice was finally delivered to him. Banwari Lal, son of Jwala Prasad, said that his father was the first one who was shot, and later his uncle and his two brothers. He added that the attackers were shooting anyone who came in front of them. Chotelal, who was a teenager during that that said that he was working in fields when he heard the sound of gunfire and Jwala Prasad getting killed. Another witness, Chameli Devi, said that she broke her two legs while escaping from the scene to save her life.
Following this incident, the government established Anti-Decoity Courts, which would deal with cases related to Decoity. But if you see that since then, caste violence in India, by the upper caste against the lower caste, has only increased and never decreased. Even to this day, cases related to caste violence continue to be brought to the court, which are mostly from regions where there is significant division between the upper caste and the lower caste. So, it is not new in India where courts take years or sometimes even decades to deliver the verdict, especially when the victims are from an underprivileged community and have fewer resources.