Profile of Brahmeswar Singh

Brahmeshwar Singh, a former mukhia of Khopira panchayat of Sandesh block in Bhojpur district of Bihar, assumed the leadership of the Ranvir Kisan Sangharsh Samiti from Sheo Narain Chowdhury, the mukhia of Belur block, in 1994.

Brahmeshwar Singh, a former mukhia of Khopira panchayat of Sandesh block in Bhojpur district of Bihar, assumed the leadership of the Ranvir Kisan Sangharsh Samiti from Sheo Narain Chowdhury, the mukhia of Belur block, in 1994.

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Under Chowdhury's leadership, the samiti was not in a position to counter the CPI(ML) Liberation's decision to impose an economic blockade on farmers in several villages of Bhojpur district.

Brahmeshwar turned the samiti into a militant organisation and named it after Ranvir, a former armyman who worked for the welfare of the villagers, mostly Bhumihars. He cleverly used Ranvir's name to win the support of villagers in his fight against Naxalites.

The 1999 report of the CPI(ML) said: "Ranvir Sena is the most notorious and most ruthless private army."

Officials said Mukhiya's "farmer's army", one of several rival militia groups that emerged in rural Bihar in the early 1980s, came into being following a feud over lighting a cigarette.

The young son of an upper-caste farmer was beaten by Dalits when he approached one of them for a light. The boy told his father, who responded by beating members of the low-caste group.