sudhakar rao maratha

Anyone ever heard about Sudhakar Rao Maratha alias Sudhakar Rao Prabhune ? A hardcore rightwing criminal who was nabbed by the M.P. police few months back in Jhansi which seized a car, a revolver and five cartridges from him. In fact one of Sudhakar’s colleague Shivam Dhakad was already under the custody of Ujjain police when Sudhakar was apprehended. According to the senior police officers Sudhakar Rao was in touch with RSS Pracharak -Terrorist Sunil Joshi, who was shot dead in Dewas in 2007 under mysterious circumstances.

Hardcore right-wing criminal Sudhakar Prabhune alias Sudhakar Rao Maratha, who could throw light on the mysterious murder of RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi, has been arrested in Madhya Pradesh. The 26-year-old was wanted in connection with a string of murders of Muslims in Ratlam and Mandsaur. The state police claimed he was arrested on Tuesday from Bilkhiria when he was on way to Bhopal from Sagar. …

Rao took to crime when he was 19. His name cropped in the murder of Jafar Khan, who was shot dead in Chittorgarh. ’ (Right-wing criminal’ held, to be questioned in Joshi murder case, Indian Express, Posted: Thu Sep 30 2010, 02:50 hrs Bhopal)

It was interesting to note that neither the police nor the media expressed its excitement over the arrest of this criminal who was absconding for quite sometime and had cases registered against him not only in M.P. but Rajasthan as well. Unlike even petty criminals on whose arrest police calls press conference, a strange silence pervaded the police headquarters. And the media also rather followed suit. The same media which cried hoarse about ‘dreaded terrorist being caught’ when even a ex-member of SIMI with no crimes registered against him was caught, did not even deem it necessary to report the incident. Barring exceptions mainstream media rather preferred to black out the news, despite the sensational nature of his arrest. Reports tell us that he was nabbed by the UP ATS and then it handed over him to their M.P. counterparts. A fact underlined by a weekly ‘Lok Lehar’(18 th Oct-24 th Oct 2010) went rather unnoticed that a RSS leader was accompanying him in the car at the time of his arrest. When Sudhakar surrendered himself this other gentleman had talked to some senior police official in Bhopal and this helped him rescue himself when Sudhakar was formally arrested by the ATS.

It was not for nothing that the first formal statement made by Sudhakar after being apprehended by the ATS related to his being in contact with RSS/BJP leaders during the period when he was absconding. According to him these leaders helped him in very many ways during this period. Sudhakar did mention the name of some Tapan Bhaumik  who acts as a liasion between RSS and BJP. Interestingly Bhaumik also seemed to indirectly accepting his meeting with Sudhakar by underlining that he regularly gets phone calls from many people and Sudhakar had also called once. (Lok Lehar, do)

It definitely needs a high level investigation to find out Sudhakar’s network of contacts in the Parivar establishment and the reasons behind media’s strange silence over this episode. Whether there was pressure from a section of the powers that be or whether it was part of some self-restrainment on part of the media (which is quite unusual in all such cases) towards this shadowy Hindutva-inspired sharpshooter known for target killings and ‘eliminating’ Muslims, local-level particular leaders and those who were into inter-religious marriages, one needs to know..

Few details of the five murders Sudhakar committed are worth noticeable.

- Zafar Khan from Chittorgarh had married Sudhakar’s sister Jyoti and he was killed to ‘avenge’ this humiliation.

- Hanif Shah : Sudhakar murdered this singer as Hanif had married a hindu girl Hema Bhatnagar

- Gabru Pathan from Mandsaur was murdered by him as his nephew had killed a hindu trader from Mandsaur named Nitesh Doshi

- Ramjani Sherani from Ratlam was killed as part of fulfillment of fanatic Hindutva agenda

- R. R. Khan was allegedly involved in illegal trade of arms and that is why Sudhakar ‘punished’ him

A fact which does need mention that Sudhakar also hailed from Malwa region which is considered a hotbed of Hindutva fanatics and many of the Hindutva inspired terrorist acts in different parts of the country had their genesis in this region only. Ranging from the failed attempts to bomb Ijtima gatherings in 2002 and 2003 near Bhopal, the bomb blasts in Modasa, Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Meccas Masjid or Ajmer Sharief were either planned here or activists of fanatic Hindutva formations played an important role in their execution. Interestingly Malwa is also considered a stronghold of Muslim extremists as well. Few years ago the entire leadership of SIMI was arrested from a place from an area near Indore.

It is now history how Sudhakar entered the world of crime. Sudhakar took to crime when his own sister married a Muslim youth. He had no qualms in killing his own brother in law and widow his sister. Later he committed a series of murders including that of Congress leader RR Khan as well. (October 2004) . After his arrest Sudhakar and Dhakad have confessed to this crime and have also given a graphic description of the incident to the police. One does not know how their confession would affect fate of four Muslims who have already faced conviction for ‘committing’ this crime. The list of convictees include Gulfam from Nagda also, who while admitting to other crimes had claimed that he was framed for Khan’s murder.

It is clear that with a dispensation in power in the state which has never tried to tackle the menace of majoritarian terror which has risen among its midst and which has tried to play havoc in different parts of the country, it is next to impossible to reach the root of this particular case. We will never be able to unearth this hardcore criminals alleged network of contacts among different Hindutva organisations. Of course, the key thing to note in this whole episode is the yet unexplored terrain of the world of crime and Hindutva’s growing bonhomie with it. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Sudhakar Maratha represents another mode through which Hindutva expresses and unfolds itself.

And thus while demanding a thorough enquiry in this case and the alleged collusion between criminals, the police and the Parivar people, it would be helpful if we are able to map similar examples from different areas and sections. It would not be an exaggeration to say that to cater to its twenty four hour cacaophony around character building and keep its base among the middle classes intact which loves to formally detest crime, Hindutva brigade finds it fit to ‘outsource’ many ‘dirty’ works to those people engaged in this ‘profession’ only and in return provide these actual perpetrators security and support using levers of power.

One could say that the arrest of Prasad Attavar, a senior functionary of the right wing Sri Rama Sene in March 2010, for his connections with the underworld, was in fact another indication of this phenomenon.