Ranvir Sena
[7] The Bihar state government banned the Ranvir Sena in July 1995, but the group continue to remain active.
[6] According to Professor Ashwani Kumar, the "origin of the Ranvir Sena is shrouded in mystery... [but] it is fair to assume that the Bhumihars in Belaur village in Bhojpur district" in 1994.
As the legend goes, during the late 19th century, Ranvir Choudhary, a retired military man and a resident of Belaur village in Bhojpur district, protected the rights of the Bhumihar, a land-owning upper caste of the State, against the domination of the Rajputs.
[12] Brahmeshwar Singh was killed by unidentified gunmen on 1 June 2012 while on his morning walk in the Bhojpur district headquarters of Arrah.
[16] In 2015, in a media sting operation, evidence came to light that BJP leaders, including Murli Manohar Joshi and C. P. Thakur and the former PM Chandra Shekhar were complicit in the Bihar Dalit massacres committed by the Ranvir Sena,[2] further Lalu Prasad's RJD set up the Amir Das Commission,[17] after the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre.
It is strongly believed that the commission's findings were going to demonstrate firm links between the Ranvir Sena, the JD(U) and the BJP .
Most of the people Ranvir Sena killed that night belonged to families allegedly supporting Party Unity, a communist group.
[23] The dead included 5 teenage girls who had been raped and mutilated before being shot, and 8 people from the Mallah community who had ferried Ranvir Sena members across the Son River before and after the attack.
[6][21] On 25 January 1999, there was a massacre of 22 Dalit men, women and children by Ranvir Sena in the village of Shankarbigha, Jehanabad due to their alleged Naxalite allegiance and to establish the supremacy of landlords.
[24] In June 2000, Ranvir Sena was alleged to be behind the attack, carried out using automatic weapons, on the lower-caste Yadav villagers of Miapur, Aurangabad district in Bihar.
[25] Brahmeshwar Singh 'Mukhiya', the founder chief of the Ranvir Sena, on whose head the authorities had placed a reward of half a million Indian rupees, was the Supreme Commander of the Ranvir Sena until he was arrested in Patna on 29 August 2002 to face a number of criminal cases, which included those related to massacres.
[16] On 8 July 2011, Brahmeshwar Singh was released on bail after serving 9 years in jail awaiting trial for 17 cases, including those related to Dalit carnages in Bihar.
[34][35] In the same year (2001), another leader of Sena's armed squad, Shashi Bhushan Sharma was brutally killed by unidentified assailants in the Bahadurpur village of Patna district, allegedly by members of People's War group.
The Maoists highjacked the whole town of Jahanabad for few hours and during that incident, they kidnapped 40 members of Sena, who were also incarcerated in the same jail.
[41] In 2011, another commander of Sena, Manish Sharma, who was accused of committing numerous murders in Gaya district, was killed in the Belaganj Police Station area by unidentified gunmen.
It was believed that his killing was a result of growing caste based animosity in the region, which was caused by his attempt to revive the defunct Sena once again.
