A forgotten carnage: Asta endures sense of injustice for decades

For nearly 40 years, the forgotten people of Asta village in Uttar Pradesh seek justice for a massacre that claimed 15 lives, with no progress in the case.

Haunted by memories of a massacre and a lingering sense of injustice for nearly 40 years, the residents of Asta village in Uttar Pradesh’s district describe themselves as “forgotten people”. They allege that despite some of them having witnessed the carnage that claimed 15 lives, they were neither summoned to court nor are they aware of the present status of the case. On May 26, 1984, gunshots shattered the stillness of an intensely hot afternoon, recalls Vidya Ram, the complainant in the Asta massacre, who was then 18 years old.

Subhash Chandra Nishad who lost his brother. (HT)

He remembers a woman and two men holding many men at gun-point. She was Kusuma Nain, one of the most feared woman bandits, and the two men were Lalaram and Shriram, leaders of the gang. There were others, all heavily armed.

Cursing, they began shooting the villagers one by one. Others torched every single house in the village, 70 in all.

Stunned at what he saw, the 18-year-old Vidya Ram ran 12 km to Auraiya to inform the police about what came to be known as the Asta massacre --13 people were shot dead, a woman and her four-year-old son were burnt alive. Three were injured in the firing. The Asta carnage was allegedly in retaliation to the Behmai massacre, in which 20 members of the Thakur community were killed by “bandit queen” Phoolan Devi and her gang on February 14, 1981, and the growing power of Mallah gangs. Phoolan Devi had surrendered about a year before the Asta carnage in Madhya Pradesh but her protege Jagdish Mallah was killing Thakurs in the adjoining Jalaun.

As for Asta, 40 years on, Vidya Ram is clueless as to what happened in the Asta case in all these years. Not only him, the survivors and the family members of those who were killed have no idea either.

“I was not given the copy of FIR, nor was I ever summoned to any court for testimony,” claims Vidya Ram, adding he was called once to Jalaun to identify a dacoit Ram Phal, a member of Lalaram gang.

“Apart from me, Bharat Singh and Radhey Ram also went to Jalaun. That was the last time I heard from the police and I never stepped into any court,” he said outside his new house built atop a hillock outside Asta.

Old police records accessed by HT showed an FIR 210/1984 was registered around 8.20 pm on May 26, 1984 by Vidya Ram. The FIR was lodged against Kusuma Nain, Lalaram, Shriram and 15 unidentified people under Sections 147, 148, 149, 302 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code.

Records show the names of dacoits Lallu Dhobi, Ram Phal and Mulafat came to light in the case. Tallu Dhobi and Ram Phal were arrested. The first charge-sheet was filed on November 29, 1984 and the supplementary charge-sheet against Ram Phal was filed on April 7, 1985 in an Etawah court.

But both of them were acquitted on November 29, 1988, exactly four years after the charge-sheet was filed. Beyond this, the records are silent.

Joint director, prosecution, Auraiya, Krishna Kumar said no case related to this massacre is being tried or pending in any court in the district.

Nor does Kusuma, 60, who is currently lodged in Gwalior jail, face any trial in connection with the Asta carnage. Additional district government counsel (ADGC), anti-dacoity courts, Mukesh Porwal confirmed that there is no case pertaining to the Asta massacre or Kusuma.

No such case was pending in Etawah, from which Auraiya was carved out as a separate district in 1997.

Lakhan Singh lost three people, including his father, in the carnage. A teenager at that time, he doesn’t remember his brother or him ever being called to court. Veer Singh, who lost his brother, also does not recollect any such instance of being summoned to court.

Subhash Chandra Nishad, the only postgraduate from village in 1984, fought with the authorities initially, but gave up. “The carnage was engineered both by the dacoits and their eco system in the police to send out a strong message. It was evident soon after the dust settled down that we are not going to get any justice,” he said.

Bhagirath Nishad, who lost his brother, rues the fact that Mulayam Singh Yadav championed the cause of his community but did nothing to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“He was the leader of opposition in 1984 and became chief minister (later). He made Phoolan a party candidate, but forgot Asta.” Shyam Bihari, Anokhey Lal and Phoolmati, who were shot but survived the carnage, passed away later, in the last four to six years.

Anokhey’s brother Dev Lal said his brother, despite being an eyewitness and survivor, did not have to appear in court for his testimony.

Two journalists, Mahaveer Sharma and Anand Kushwaha, who met Shyam Bihari in 2019, recall that he was pained that justice was not done.

Asta was in the dacoits’ crosshairs for about six months preceding the carnage, the old-timers recall.

The gang of Lalaram and Shriram, the two brigands Phoolan rebelled against, suspected Asta residents were harbourers of the Mallah dacoit chieftains. Killing of three Thakurs in Romai, Jalaun, by Jagdish Mallah prepared the ground for the Asta killings.

Kusuma, who surrendered in 2004, first killed Parshuram, a local criminal in Asta, and got ready for a bigger assault. She, or for that matter Lalaram and Shri Ram, made their intentions known to the entire village.

One of the villagers, Hari Ram, was worried that the gang was always around the village, looking to target the residents.

Three days before the carnage, he informed PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) jawans stationed in Sighauli of his apprehensions and then went to meet Auraiya station house officer SS Parmar who detained him with two others.

“We went all the way on foot, dodging the gang that was nearby. We were released after it killed our people in village. For three days, police tortured (us), describing us as dacoit sympathisers,” he said.

Not only him, four men led by Bharat Singh approached a lawyer Satyadeo Tripathi two days before the mass-killings.

“I took them to the then Etawah SSP Ghanshyam Shukla and specifically told him about the threat and sought security; he did not pay heed,” Tripathi said from Lucknow, where he now lives. “After the fear turned into reality, Shukla was suspended with the SHO and the circle officer,” he said, adding Shukla was the first SSP rank official to have been suspended.

The Sripathi Mishra-led Congress government gave ₹5000 each to the families of the victims, and the then minister Balram Yadav provided cash assistance of ₹2000 each for tin shed as all the houses were burnt.

“This much we all got, not justice,” said Kusuma Devi, former village pradhan, adding that, “We are forgotten people, who cares for us.”