{"id":7085,"date":"2019-01-05T15:11:59","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T09:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/?p=7085"},"modified":"2019-01-05T15:11:59","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T09:41:59","slug":"foot-soldiers-of-the-2002-gujarat-riots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/foot-soldiers-of-the-2002-gujarat-riots\/","title":{"rendered":"Foot soldiers” of the 2002 Gujarat riots"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rajiv Shah<\/b>
\nHe is one of the more prominent “foot soldiers” of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Suresh Jadeja, alias Langdo, alias Richard, is indeed a well-known name in the Naroda Patiya massacre case, in which 97 persons were killed on February 28, 2002, the first day of the riots that shook the nation. Ordinarily, such a person should have been subjected to sociological scrutiny. What have here is a keen journalistic account, with clear political-ideological overtone.
\n<\/a>Indeed, convicted for life on August 31, 2012 for murder and rape, little, however, is known about this rioter\u2019s vulnerable background. Apart from participating in the\u00a0 murder of Majid\u2019s nine-member family, he was reportedly part of a group consisting of Babu Bajrangi, Jai Bhawani and Guddu Chhara that killed Kausar Bi. They had \u201csurrounded her, murdered her, ripped out the foetus within her with a sword and killed up\u201d, to quote Revati Laul\u2019s new\u00a0book<\/a>, \u201cThe Anatomy of Hate\u201d.
\nSuresh particularly acquired notoriety after his name sprang up in a sting operation, carried out by \u201cTehelka\u201d magazine\u2019s Ashish Khetan, before whom he spilled beans on how he was involved in murder and rape, as also BJP leader Maya Kodnani\u2019s alleged involvement in the riot.
\nHowever, what is not known about Suresh is this: Coming from Chharanagar, which houses members of the Chhara community, Laul gives an extensive picture of Suresh as a person who \u201cgrew up in the 1970s in a neighbourhood of professional criminals \u2013 thieves, smugglers and gamblers \u2013 men and women alike\u201d, adding, \u201cThey owed their notoriety to a law put in place in 1871 by the British.\u201d Following the 1857 Great Revolt, Chharas, a nomadic tribe, were labeled as a criminal tribe, people who were \u201caddicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences.\u201d
\nContinues Laul, \u201cAll 150,000 Chharas were stuffed into internment camps, with a daily roll call and head count. Robbed of their traditional livelihood, the Chharas found that the only way they could live was as outlaws.\u201d Labeled the son of a thief even in 1970s, Suresh contracted polio, which gave him his \u201cmiddle name\u201d, Langdo, the limper. \u201cThere was no getting away from it. His leg preceded him wherever he went \u2013 a visible, physical sign of failure. That\u2019s home his father Kanti Lal described it anyway\u2026 \u2018a one-legged limper. Good for nothing\u2019.\u201d
\nOldest of five children, expelled from school for hitting a teacher in the head with a stone, Suresh \u201ceventually\u201d took on the \u201cfamily trade of thieving\u201d, says Laul, pointing to how he tried to replace the moniker Langdo with something positive. Crazy about cricket, he fashioned himself as the kids\u2019 hero, identifying himself with one of the best West Indies players, Vivian Richard. That\u2019s how, she adds, Suresh \u201cgradually took on the last name, Richard\u2026\u201d
\nAccording to Laul, \u201cOver time, the police file on him put him down as Suresh \u2018Langdo\u2019 and Suresh Richard in equal measure\u2026 Over time, fewer and fewer people linked him with his father\u2019s name, Suresh Kantilal Jadeja. Over time, Suresh found his way out of the fractured family through violence.\u201d Found molesting a girl, whom he and a friend dragged into a by-lane, whisking her away to the back to a workshop, on hearing the complaint about it, his father, Kantilal, apologizing profusely, declared, \u201cI don\u2019t know who that wife of mine has slept with to produce this bastard\u2026\u201d
\nMeanwhile, Laul says, the poorer part of Chharanagar, called Chhota Chharanagar, became the \u201cthe perfect swamp for animosity to fester\u201d, as the \u201ccountry was experiencing a new wave of Hindu evangelism in the 1990s.\u201d She adds, \u201cIt was in this part of Ahmedabad city, which the law and justice systems had long ignored, that the most testosterone-driven, sabre-rattling arm of the Hindu right \u2013 Bajrang Dal \u2013 decided to proselytize. People with saffron brands and sharp three-pronged tridents had begun to organize weekend camps close to Chharanagar, and these were eventually attended by Suresh and many like him.\u201d
\nPointing out how the anti-Babri Masjid campaign influenced Suresh, Laul says, he didn\u2019t go to Ayodhya like many others from Gujarat, but he was \u201ccaught up in the tidal wave of Hindu envangelism that went with it and all the accompanying propaganda against Muslims\u2026\u201d Those who knew him found in him \u201ca distinct difference in behaviour. Before the demolition, he hung out quite unselfconsciously with his Muslim friends\u201d, with his influence extending from Chharanagar to a \u201cfew friends\u201d in the Naroda Patiya ghetto, where also Muslims lived \u201coutside the pale of law.\u201d
\nIt was in the midst of this \u201czealous indoctrination\u201d, says Laul, Suresh discovered to his \u201chorror that his sister had eloped with a Muslim man\u201d, changing her name from Sita to Shamim. \u201cThe humiliation Suresh felt was more than he could handle, declaring to \u201call and sundry\u201d that \u201cthey have taken one of mine, I will take one of theirs\u201d, setting himself a task to appease his rage: finding a Muslim wife, making him stalk a teenage girl, Farzana. \u201cMuscular and charming\u201d, notes Laul, \u201cSuresh made sure Farzana saw this side of him.\u201d
\nAccording to Laul, Farzana was living in a movie, with Suresh adding \u201cfilminess\u201d by declaring to her, \u201cI love you. I love your eyes, They are just like Hema Malini\u2019s\u201d. Wonders Laul, \u201cWas he merely acting according to plan, or was he also, despite himself and his cold resolve, falling in love? Either way, it was clear by now that Farzana had more or less made up her mind.\u201d
\nAs Farzana ran away with Suresh, police looked for him for kidnapping her. Three months later, he returned, armed with marriage papers stamped by a local court. With this began their complicated relationship. While he would tell her that she loved her, she would also beat her up off and on, something that continued till he was sentenced for life in 2012. If after the marriage, the love Farzana had for Suresh had already \u201cslowly\u201d began to die, in 2009, she declared before the Chhara community panchayat, whom she approached for justice, \u201cIt\u2019s finished. Khallas ho gaya ab. It\u2019s all over.\u201d She even approached the court, applying for divorce.
\nAt one point, when Suresh was in jail and Farzana was desperate, as she had to look after her two children \u2013 Richie and Vivian (named after Suresh\u2019s cricketing idol, Vivian Richard) \u2013 she even tried her hand with joining a group of women thieves from Chharanagar, as washing clothes and cleaning utensils wasn\u2019t enough to make two ends meet. Recalls Laul, \u201cShe asked a group of Chhara women thieves if she could go along with them on their next gig. \u2018Yes, yes, I\u2019ll do the best I can, whatever you say\u2019, Farzana pleaded. They agreed. She was to play the decoy in their next act.\u201d
\nContinues Laul, \u201cFarzana was instructed to stand on the vegetable seller\u2019s cart and distract the woman buyer they had zeroed in on, so that the other women could steal the purse. She delivered on her task, and the heist was successful. After the proceeds were divided, Farzana\u2019s share was Rs 75. She was relieved to have made some money.\u201d However, Suresh\u2019s chachi stopped her from doing this, telling her, \u201cThose are the worst sort of people to hand around with.\u201d
\nThe day the riots began February 28, 2002, Suresh, as a key member of mob, participated in violence. He was part of the 46 others who were arrested and sent to Sabarmati jail for the massacre in Naroda Patiya. Comparing his arrest with that of long-time BJP leader Maya Kodnani, MLA from the area, Laul says, she constantly featured in the violence which took place.
\nYet, Laul adds, \u201cSuresh was dispensable to the Sangh Parivar, but Maya Kodnani was not. Despite several eye witness accounts, Maya was not arrested until five years later. In that time, she had contested and won another election on a BJP ticket, and was even made minister for Women and Child Welfare. If Mayaben wasn\u2019t going to be arrested, then others in the mob would have to be held to account.\u201d
\nThis, according to Laul, was also a new beginning of ordeal for Farzana. \u201cWith Suresh in jail, Farzana felt the gullies of Chharanagar closing in on her. She was not just Farzana, she was \u2018that Musalmaan\u2019. The word curled around the tongues of Suresh\u2019s family. It was calculated to impress upon Farzana her place in the world, so she would crawl with fear, lurk in quiet corners and keep her head down.\u201d
\nOut of bail soon, a sting operation in 2007, published in \u201cTehelka\u201d magazine, forced Suresh to return to jail. During the sting, speaking of rapes during the 2002 riots, he told journalist Ashish Khetan, who posed as a VHP man, \u201cWhen thousands of hungry men go in, they will eat some fruit or the other\u2026 In any case the fruit was going to be crushed and thrown away\u2026 I also ate\u2026 I ate once\u2026. Then I had to go killing again\u2026 That scarp dealer\u2019s girl, that juicy plump\u2026 I got on top. Then I pulped her\u2026 made her into a pickle.\u201d
\nAfter the tapes were out, on National Human Rights Commission\u2019s intervention, the Supreme Court ordered fresh probe. Trial began in the court of Jyotsna Yagnik in 2009. For three years, she listened to depositions from both sides. Suresh was one of the accused. Finally, on August 31, 2012, he was handed 31-year jail sentence for murder and rape after an eye witness, Farida, identified him.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rajiv Shah He is one of the more prominent “foot soldiers” of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Suresh Jadeja, alias Langdo, alias Richard, is indeed a well-known name in the Naroda Patiya massacre case, in which 97 persons were killed on February 28, 2002, the first day of the riots that shook the nation. Ordinarily, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUKPQ-1Qh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7086,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085\/revisions\/7086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}