When a cult figure illegally occupied Mathura’s Jawahar Bagh for 2 years

The Braj region of west Uttar Pradesh is no stranger to religious cult figures with their own private army, vast resources and followers drawn largely from the poorer section of the society.

The preacher Suraj Pal, popularly known as Bhole Baba, is only the latest such personality to be in the news after the Hathras stampede.

Other cult figures who commanded a vast following in the region in the past included Baba Jai Gurudev. His main ashram was in Mathura and it boasted of a replica of the Taj Mahal.

Congregations of lakhs of people at Jai Guru Dev’s ashram in Mathura on National Highway 2 kept the Mathura police on their toes till about two decades ago.

The ashram volunteers used to manage traffic and parking arrangements while the police usually remained mere onlookers.

Jai Guru Dev died in 2012, triggering a war of succession as he reportedly left behind an empire worth over ₹10,000 crore, a palatial ashram in Mathura and properties in several cities in northern India, apart from 250 luxury cars – all supposedly gifted by his devotees.

Ram Vriksha Yadav claimed to be Jai Guru Dev’s successor but failed to take control of the ashram and its assets.

On January 24, 2014, he walked into Jawahar Bagh, a public park, in Mathura city with about 100 to 150 supporters and sought permission to stage a “dharna” (sit-in) for two to three days. Among his demands was the death certificate of Baba Jai Gurudev.

“Ram Vriksha Yadav then increased his demands, including death certificate of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, availability of 40-litre petrol and 60-litre diesel for Re 1, beside implementation of the Azad Hind currency,” said Narendra Singh who ran the Jawahar Bagh Sangarsh Samiti those days.

“The ever increasing number of occupants led by Yadav had Aadhaar cards, gas connections, ration cards and regular supply of food and other material. They began objecting to entry of farmers who used to visit the office of the zila krishi adhikari in Jawahar Bagh for fertilizer and subsidised seeds. Ram Vriksha Yadav got a gate constructed and assured landless followers that they would be provided 200 square yard plots in Jawahar Bagh, a government property,” Singh said.

Like Bhole Baba, Ram Vriksha Yadav had a private army of around 3,000 men and women claiming to be activists of “Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena”. They illegally occupied the park for two years till they were evicted in an operation that turned violent.

“The matter related to Jawahar Bagh is now pending in the CBI court at Ghaziabad,” said LK Gautam, who was the counsel for Ram Vriksha Yadav.

Yadav, who used to preach to his followers at Jawahar Bagh, had a reputation for violence. He used to claim that India was yet to attain freedom and change will come one day. His hardcore followers believed every word till June 2, 2016 when a bid to evict the illegal occupants, sparked a violent clash with police and led to the killing of then SP, Mathura City, Mukul Dwivedi.

“The CBI was handed over the probe and case was listed in the Ghaziabad magistrate court with a charge sheet filed against more than 100 by CBI but many of the accused have died. Police initially claimed that a badly burnt body in the June 2 violence was that of Ram Vraksh Yadav but his aides denied to identify and a controversy prevailed till the high court intervened and ordered the Mathura Nagar Nigam to issue his death certificate to his son Vivek Yadav, another accused,” Gautam said.

At the time of Jawahar Bagh incident that claimed more than two dozen lives, the Samajwadi Party was in power in Uttar Pradesh and had to face questions about alleged political patronage to Ram Vriksha Yadav. It was an issue in the 2017 UP assembly election, which the SP lost.

Parallels are being drawn with Bhole Baba who too has a private army, amassed huge property and had followers who believed each word spoken by their cult leader.

Addressing a press conference after the arrest of stampede accused Dev Prakash Madhukar in Delhi on Friday, Hathras superintendent of police, Nipun Agarwal alluded to the political dimension behind organisation of Bhole Baba. He blamed private army of Bhole Baba for making things worse by not allowing police to intervene and taking everything into their own hands.

“Those called commandos of the organization, in the attire of sevadars (volunteers), were looking after the arrangements and were prohibiting anyone from taking photo or making video but failed in ensuring proper arrangements and violated terms and condition on which sanction was granted by administration at Hathras. They made no effort to streamline crowd movement and absconded when things went wrong and led to the tragedy which claimed so many lives,” Agarwal said.