AJai Kanu, 56, looks like any other middle-class man walking on the street in Patna, the capital of Bihar. He is wearing blue jeans, black sports shoes and a checked polycotton shirt. He is slightly portly, middle-aged, and his bespectacled, slightly puffy face does not fit the image of a dangerous Naxalite laughing in the face of death.
“It was in jail that I discovered who I was,” says Kanu, who has been a free man for the last few years and has spent 18 years in several prisons in the state. The former Naxalite commander, accused in 50 murder cases, looks at the world today with forgiveness and some faith.
In 2005, Kanu, alias Sao, or more coolly Ravji, was the cause of the Jehanabad jail break, which led to the escape of 389 prisoners, including several Maoists and hardened criminals. About a dozen people were killed and about half a dozen were injured; Police rifles and bullets were looted. At that time the number of prisoners in the overcrowded Jehanabad jail was 659; The official capacity was 140.
An officer, who later became Inspector General of Police (IG) of Bihar in the early 2000s, says hundreds of people, including both upper caste people and farmers, were killed in ethnic massacres in the 1990s and early 2000s. Were. “Notorious as the 'killing zone' or 'burning zone', law and order in central Bihar – Jehanabad, Gaya, Aurangabad, Bhojpur, Arwal – was severely compromised.”
The main challenge for the police was the guerrilla warfare tactics used by Naxalites, blowing up police vehicles and extorting money from private companies involved in construction. His armed squads, sometimes supported by politicians, would move into the dense forests of Jamui, Sasaram, Gaya and Nawada, set up their camps and plan attacks.
In the late 2000s, the Naxalites shifted their base to neighboring Jharkhand districts.
The year of the Jehanabad jail break, Bihar recorded 13.4% of all crimes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the third highest in the country. Among cities, the highest number of cases of murder, robbery and dacoity were registered in Patna.
breaking out
On 13 November 2005, at 9.05 pm, the first bomb exploded not far from the jail. “This is a signal to the imprisoned fellow Maoists that their comrades have come to get them released,” says Kanu. This was the same month in 1917 when the Bolshevik Party seized power in Russia.
About 1,000 armed Maoists surrounded the jail in Jehanabad, just 70 km from Patna, for more than two hours. Then more bombs and the loud sounds of gunfire shattered the peace of the city whose electricity had been cut. The land around the prison and the roads leading to the national highway were covered with landmines. Every police picket was surrounded. Kanu remembers, soon the jail opened. “We just walked out; We didn't even run away.”
A senior police officer involved in the investigation says an AK-47 was fired at Kanu, which he used to kill two commanders of the Ranvir Sena, an upper caste militia group fighting the Maoists in central Bihar at the time. Were.
Foot soldiers wearing bathroom slippers and large police uniforms appealed on microphones to city residents to “stay indoors” as “we have no quarrel with the public, only with the public.” Administration (Administration)”. People heard the sounds of crude 'cane' bombs (in milk cans) and bullets, interspersed with eerie silence. “If the deaf are to hear, the sound must be very loud,” says Kanu. “
Bihar was under President's rule and state assembly elections were going on. Most of the police forces were on election duty, so it was easy to steal arms and ammunition. The operation was carried out by the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (India), a militant underground unit of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), commanded by Kanu. The prison remained open until dawn the next day, so that everyone could go and come freely. However, by the next month, 269 prisoners returned of their own free will, but the Maoist cadres and Ranvir Sena members did not.
“It is the duty of revolutionaries to help the oppressed and free their cadres even by attacking jails,” says Kanu. kum-cheeni-wali Tea (tea with less sugar) at a roadside shop on a humid day. Crowds gather all around. “I am now a diabetic,” he says sarcastically, adding that he also has high blood pressure. However, his mind is alert, and his movements are quick, always keeping an eye on his surroundings. In the last few years, he has been acquitted in most of the cases. “Very soon, I will be acquitted in the remaining six cases and become a free man,” he says.
Ajay Kanu Photo courtesy: Amarnath Tiwari
early years
Kanu is a resident of Chauhar village in Arwal district, 34 km from Jehanabad. He belongs to the Extremely Backward Class (EBC), which constitutes 36.01% of the state's population in the 2022-23 caste survey of Bihar. “I want to work for the development and upliftment of the 110 castes that fall under this category,” he says.
Recently, he sold a part of his agricultural land in his village so that his children can go to good colleges. His son is in polytechnic, studying a technology-related course, and his daughter is working toward becoming a nurse.
After the jail break, the police demolished his house in the village. He now lives in a simple but spacious house next to the bypass road, on the outskirts of Patna. His wife Sharda Devi takes care of the house.
His late father Fagu Prasad was a marginal farmer. “My father was more leftist than a farmer. He has been the biggest influence in my life,” says Kanu, wiping his gold-framed glasses and placing them neatly back on his face. “When I was in school and he would massage his tired feet at night, he would tell me stories about Bhagat Singh, Mao Tse-Tung, Che Guevara and the Russian Revolution,” he recalls. Kanu's father was part of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in the 1980s and later started participating in ultra-left underground activity. “In fact, he taught me ultra-leftist ideology,” recalls Kanu, a history graduate from Jehanabad's Swami Sahajanand College.
Kanu says he was fond of sports in college and won college championships in long jump, high jump and running events. He became involved in student politics and was elected college president from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He soon became disillusioned with right-wing ideology due to “the divisive politics of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and the RSS”.
To achieve financial independence after graduation in 1989, he started a coaching institute called Naveen Bal Vidya Niketan in Professor Colony, Jehanabad, but due to the “betrayal” of the upper caste owner of the place where he was running it, he was forced to leave the school. It had to be closed. ,
journey of maoism
A series of events upset Kanu. He says that first of all a powerful person of the village got his brother and cousin killed over a minor dispute. “I was falsely implicated in this case. Then my father was beaten to death by another powerful man in the village and his men in a land dispute in February 1994; I was trapped again. But by that time I had started participating in underground meetings of Maoists in the area.
“The oppressor who beat my father to death was killed by the Maoist cadre. I left my village to live with them, with their ideologies. You can kill a man, but you can't kill an ideology,” says philosopher Kanu, disappointment evident in his wry smile. His understanding of ideology, an athletic body and the ability to quickly learn about weapons helped him quickly rise through the ranks in a few years. He was made a member of the Central Committee of the Maoists, whose operations extended to states like Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Soon, he was made the area commander of the banned organization, which is still in existence.
“Our fight was against the oppressors, who were the landlords and landlords at that time. The Ranvir Sena will not spare women and children, but we (Maoists) will target only able-bodied men,'' says Kanu, whose name by then had come to be used as a way of keeping people indoors.
The state police announced a reward of ₹3 lakh for bringing in Kanu. On 28 August 2002, he was arrested from Bailey Road, Patna when his wife was expecting their first child.
He says that the police tortured him for 24 hours. “He was a very difficult maniac to catch,” says a senior police officer who interrogated him.
He was later transferred to Jehanabad jail, where he read books and organized fellow prisoners, demanding better living conditions and food and speaking out against corruption by jail officials. He soon earned the respect of his fellow prisoners and the prison authorities feared him.
He also went on a hunger strike inside the prison to “press his demands”, he says, which eventually led to prison inmates getting better food, living conditions and facilities like telephone, television and medical care.
After escaping from the jail, the residents of the city gathered in the jail. , Photo Credit: File Photo
Before and after jailbreak
“Once I had a severe toothache and asked the jail authorities to transfer me to Patna for better treatment. The then District Magistrate (DM) visited the jail ward and humiliated me,” he says. He told the DM that he would be released from jail.
“We should have killed him (in an encounter) three years before 2005 when we arrested him in 2002,” says a senior police officer who was involved in the initial arrest.
After escaping from jail, Kanu says, “I went to an abandoned man house (A big lonely house) in a village in Jehanabad, from where I escaped on a vehicle inside the forest.” The police had announced a reward of ₹5 lakh on him and in 2007, he was arrested again from Burdwan railway station in West Bengal while on his way from Bokaro in Jharkhand to Gaya and shifted to Beur Central Jail in Patna. He came out of jail in 2019, but was arrested again in what he is calling a false case, and shifted to the high-security Bhagalpur jail. The Naxalite leader was finally a free man in 2022.
That year, Kuldeep Singh, then Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force, said in a press conference that Bihar was free from Left Wing Extremism (LWE), and the struggle against Naxalites was in its final stages.
Last year, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai had told Parliament that the number of deaths related to Left Wing Extremism is expected to decline from 1,005 in 2010 to 98 in 2022.
During the conversation, Kanu receives many calls. After one, he is angry: “My blood is boiling, and I think of returning to the forest again with a gun in my hand.” A laborer was killed by a man with more money and power.
The story of the Jehanabad jailbreak was the subject of a web series, Jehanabad – of love and war, Which started streaming online from February 2023. Kanu was consulted, but he says the final product was bizarre.
He is convinced that he never wanted to join politics, although he claims that almost all major parties have approached him. He does odd jobs to run his household Contractor (Contractor), but wants to reopen the coaching institute.
“Those were regrettable days. Now, I want to focus on education.
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