The story of Atmaram, and the battle to establish he was murdered by cops

Seven and a half years, a legal battle later and an incredible series of events later, the state CID is hunting for his body after investigations have revealed that he was shot, killed and buried in a forest by a team led by a popular police officer who is now on the run.

On June 9, 2015, Atmaram Pardi left his village in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district, and travelled to the banks of the river Parvati. With him were eight others from his family, including his mother Appi Bai. They were carrying the ashes of his sister’s mother-in-law Mishribai, who had died of an illness. He never came back.

According to six eyewitnesses – his mother Appi Bai, his cousin and local social worker Sulochana Bai, and other family members Ambudi Pardi, Veer Singh, Ajab Pardi and Sarjudi Pardi – who registered their statements in court on May 26, 2017, Atmaram jumped into the river to avoid the police.

Seven and a half years, a legal battle later and an incredible series of events later, the state CID is hunting for his body after investigations have revealed that he was shot, killed and buried in a forest by a team led by a popular police officer who is now on the run; an officer who made his name for solving cases related to the Pardi community, a tribe that was once classified as a criminal tribe by an archaic British era law, and which continues to face discrimination seventy years after the law was de-notified.

The killing

A resident of Khejra village, 11km away from the district headquarters of Guna, Atmaram Pardi was 28 in 2015, with one case of theft registered against his name. Pardi’s sister Sarjudi Bai said, “My brother was a simple man. He was once arrested in an unknown case before 2015, spent three days in jail, and was later released on bail.”

At 10am on June 9, 2015, Pardi left home with eight others, including his mother Appi Bai, to immerse the ashes of Mishribai, his sister’s mother-in-law. At noon, even as the family was conducting the last rites, a CID investigation has now revealed, a police team arrived at the spot. It was led by the Dharnawada police station in-charge Ramveer Kushwaha, constable Yogendra Sisodia, and two others, Dinesh Gurjar and Raghuraj Tomar. The police were on the hunt for an unknown accused in an alleged 2015 theft case registered in Gurugram, and Atmaram was one of the suspects.

According to six eyewitnesses – his mother Appi Bai, his cousin and local social worker Sulochana Bai, and other family members Ambudi Pardi, Veer Singh, Ajab Pardi and Sarjudi Pardi – who registered their statements in court on May 26, 2017, Atmaram jumped into the river to avoid the police. “He was injured in the firing. Dinesh and Raghuraj jumped into the river and caught him. In front of all the family members, Atmaram was forcefully taken in a blue car that belonged to Ramveer. The sub-inspector said Atmaram was being taken to hospital but he never returned,” the statement said.

The following day, the family reached the Dharnawada police station, but they were shooed away and told that Atmaram had escaped.

It was a claim that his mother, Appi Bai, never bought.

The suspense

For a year-and-a-half, Appi Bai made the rounds of the police station to look for her son. She reached out to activists and NGOs who made enquiries but were told Atmaram had been taken to Gurugram where he was receiving treatment. Atmaram’s cousin sister Sulochana Pardi said, “After visiting police station and police officers’ office many times, we finally met Ramveer. I don’t remember the exact month but it was the winter of 2016. Ramveer admitted to us that Atmaram had died due to gun-shot injuries and said he was ready to bear the expenses of the family.”

But Appi Bai did not want money, but justice.

In January 2017, she knocked on the doors of the Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court with a habeas corpus petition. Hearing the case on January 27, 2017, a single bench of justice Vivek Agrawal sent notices to the state, the inspector general of Guna, the superintendent of police, and the station house officer of Dharnawada police station.

On March 3 that year, 21 months after Atmaram disappeared, a missing persons complaint was filed. In April 2017, the police added sections of 365 (abduction) of IPC, but in October 2017 continued their refusal to acknowledge his death. A status report filed by the police in court read, “A missing report has been lodged in relation to petitioner’s (Appi Bai) son and efforts are being made to trace him especially in view of this fact also that there are several criminal cases registered against missing son of the petitioner and he has been declared as proclaimed offender. The petitioner has filed this petition so to divert the attention of the investigating officer from arresting the son of the petitioner, who is involved in several criminal case.”

In July 2019, constable Neeraj Joshi who was posted at the Dharnawada police station shot a sting video of Dinesh Gurjar, one of the four men that was at the site of Atmaram’s disappearance, detailing how Atmaram was killed, which then found its way to social media. In the video, Gurjar was seen saying that Ramveer Kushwaha was a dangerous man. “He shot Atmaram Pardi and nobody could do anything against him. He also finished five-six (more) people, the video said,” said Satish Chaturvedi, DSP, CID.

Kushwaha’s lawyer Gajendra Chauhan said, “I won’t comment on this because the matter is pending before court. We will present our side there and don’t want to be part of a media trial.”

In the wake of these fresh developments, Sulochana Pardi, who is a relative of Atmaram Pardi, an eyewitness to his alleged shooting, but also a former Janpad member approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court through a separate petition in August 2019, demanding a CBI enquiry into the case.

Pardi’s advocate Rajmani Bansal said that the Madhya Pradesh government then handed over the case to the CID for a “fair investigation” on August 13, 2019. But between August 2019 and December 2022, Bansal alleged that the composition of the investigation team changed at least 10 times. Even as the family fought for justice, they suffered another blow; In 2020, Appi Bai, aged 70 by then, died after a prolonged illness.

The revelations

On December 1, 2022, at the fourth hearing of Sulochana Pardi’s petition, the single bench of Justice GS Ahluwalia asked for a fresh status report. “In this application, it was pleaded that a free and fair investigation has been done by a Special Investigation Team under the leadership of the assistant inspector general of police and, therefore, further interference under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is not warranted. Three long years have passed but the status of the investigation is not known. The State counsel is directed to file the latest status report,” said the court order.

In 15 days, the state CID charged four men, sub inspector Ramveer Kushwaha, constable Yogendra Sisodia, and their two accomplices Raghuraj Tomar and Dinesh Gurjar under sections 365 and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. Kushwaha, who was posted at the police lines in Agar Malwa, was suspended, and Sisodia was arrested on December 14. The other three accused are still on the run, said Satish Chaturvedi, deputy superintendent of police, CID.

Kushwaha went on leave on December 12, and has since not reported to work at the police lines in Agar Malwa where he is posted. Over the past month, three teams have been formed to trace his whereabouts, and police teams have raided his home and a farmhouse he owns in Agar Malwa. The police have also raided a hotel based on the location of his mobile phone, but he was not found, CID officials said.

Sulochana Pardi said, “Kushwaha is locally known as ‘Dau’ (big brother), and is highly connected. Even after the registration of a case in March 2017, he has been free. It seems to us that he is being protected.”

Chaturvedi, who began investigating the case on December 4, 2022 said that the case was “open and shut”. “We first recovered the blue car which was used to take Atmaram to the hospital on June 9, 2015. We also got an FSL (forensic) report done of the Dinesh Gurjar video which had gone viral on social media. On the basis of the video, Gurjar was arrested in July 2019, but he was released on bail in the absence of FSL report,” said the investigating officer.

Chaturvedi said that during his interrogation Sisodia confessed that Atmaram had died in police custody on June 9. “But to hide the matter, his body was buried in the forests of Ruthiyai. He was not aware of the exact location.”

“Ruthiya is a huge forest and we cannot possibly dig the entire area, so we have moved court to ask for the arrest of Dinesh Gurjar who is out on bail. We have also filed an application for the narco test of Sisodia because we know that he must have information regarding the body,” said Chaturvedi.

CID officials said that Kushwaha, who joined the police as constable, was well known in Guna for cracking cases related to the Pardi community. “Ranveer would often help the police of other states to crack theft cases committed by the Pardi community. But we have also found that Ramveer would take money from Pardi families to save them from police action,” the CID officer said.

The investigating officer Chaturvedi said, “We have sought information from Guna and Agar Malwa police about Kushwaha’s assets to initiate a corruption case against him. Further investigations are underway.”

The Pardis

As extraordinary as Atmaram’s case is, experts say that it is symptomatic of the continuing discrimination and harassment the community faces. The word Pardi literally means “hunter” and for centuries, the tribes have lived in central India’s jungles. In 1871, angered by their resistance, the Pardis were among 150 tribes declared criminals by the British. For the next 80 years that the act was in operation, the tribe’s members were often booked under the Criminal Tribes Act.

The colonial-era legislation was finally repealed in 1952, and the tribes were denotified. But 70 years since, even though there has been some assimilation, most continue to be on the margins of society, with the criminal tag refusing to leave them.

Activist Pallav Thugdar, who has been working with the Pardis for the past decade in Madhya Pradesh said the tribe still faces a fight for acceptance. “They live in tolas outside villages, or when they go to cities they hide their identities because people raise objections to their identity. In Bhopal, we have seen many cases where locals do not give homes on rent to Pardis.”

A 2020 report by the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre that works on tribal issues and is certified by the Union ministry of tribal affairs says that among the 2274 families from denotified tribe (DNT) communities that it surveyed across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, it found that the average percentage of households who have acknowledged police visits to their locality was as high as 28.5%. The Kanjar tribe reported the maximum visits at 58.3%, with the Pardi community reporting 21.3%.

Sulochana Pardi said, “We don’t deny the fact that a few community members are involved in theft and robbery but this is a cycle that begins from social ostracisation and stigma. Police personnel like Ramveer take advantage of this, and implicate people in false cases to get themselves glory.”

Shivani Taneja, convenor of the NGO Muskaan that works on these issues, said, “The Pardis are easy targets. That is why it took seven years to show that Atmaram Pardi was killed by the police. The state government is coming up with new schemes, but police sensitization needs to be of paramount importance too.”

Back at Khejra, Atmaram’s sister Sarjudi, says that the battle has only been half won. “Yes, the police has now admitted that Atmaram was killed. But Appi Bai died in the fight for justice. That will only be achieved when his murderers are in jail, and punished for what we have faced all these years.”

(With inputs from Yogendra Lumba from Guna.)