Mr Gentleman Dacoit

Although the dreaded bandits of yesteryears have given way to petty criminals, the legendary cult of the ‘daku’ throbs in the heart of Chambal

Akash Bisht Shivpuri/Gwalior

The roads are full of potholes that haven't been fixed for decades. The terrain is treacherous. A dust trail rises as the speeding Commander jeep snakes through the roads leaving small and poverty-stricken villages behind. Half- naked children chase our jeep with broad smiles on their faces, but our guide, Mukesh Jain, an engineer, carried a grim look. He seemed serious and restless. And alert. His eyes furtively scanned the forest and adjoining hills of the dreaded, undulating, infinite ravines. This is the heart of Chambal. Legendary dacoit country. The land of the 'gentleman dacoits'.

On our way to a small village in Shivpuri district in Madhya Pradesh, the young driver switches on the stereo. Loud local music. Jain screams: “Turn it off at once.” The driver turns it off and looks towards Jain. Jain thunders: “I can understand outsiders behaving like this, but you are a local and you should understand. Don't you know, can't you see, we are being watched?”

Silence descends inside the jeep and the only sound that can be heard is that of the engine. Jain is still scanning the forest and rocky terrain. He is clearly afraid. We too feel fear. Then, suddenly, Jain breaks the silence and says, “This is the same forest where I had walked for several days when the dreaded Gadariya gang kept me hostage for 23 days.”

He then tells us that the gang has been eliminated long ago, but terror still haunts the villagers of Shivpuri and adjoining districts. The Gadariya gang, headed by Dayaram and Rambabu, roamed these forests for years making money by extortion and abductions. They were ruthless towards the Gujjar community and informers in this dacoit-infested landscape. The gang hit the headlines when it gunned down 13 Gujjars in Bhanwarpura village of Gwalior district. However, the Gadariyas are still revered and called 'gentleman daku' or 'baghi' (rebel) by the locals who believe that they were the last gang to command such universal respect. “There are a lot of gangs that operate in the districts of Shivpuri, Shoepur, Gwalior, Bhind and Morena, but they are thugs and goondas who loot or kidnap for petty cash. They kidnap poor farmers and can even settle for Rs 2,000. The baghi image died with the Gadariyas. When I was kept hostage, I was treated with utmost respect. They never used harsh words, leave alone beatings and torture which has become a common routine now,” concedes Jain.

The police have come hard on all the big gangs that operate in the area, resulting in the creation of small gangs of three or four members who kidnap or kill someone and go into hiding in the dense and endless ravines where it is almost impossible to catch them. “These gang members are not men or dacoits we knew of, these are rats who would do a petty crime and go hiding in the ravines,” says RP Singh, Additional SP, Morena. He informs that these districts have witnessed more than 600 abductions in the past five years and more than 450 dacoits have been killed over the last 15 years. But the crime rate is still high.