Highway Robbery in Balasore(A Real Incident)Phakirmohana Senapati

Highway Robbery in Balasore

(A Real Incident)

Phakirmohana Senapati

Translated from the Odia by

Supriya Prasanta

Before the railways were introduced, even the plain road having so many bridges that connects Calcutta and Puri did not exist. Pilgrims from West Bengal and northeastern parts of India who came to have a glimpse of Sri Jagannath at Puri had to negotiate winding roads that resembled a snake’s path. These were rocky, infested with wild beasts, and they ran through dense forests. Occasionally, pilgrims had to pass through narrow paths stretching through fields. In the rainy season, these pathways remained waterlogged and became deserted. During the time of Chaitanyadev, it took pilgrims from Navadwip three months to cover this distance. Now it takes no more than eight prahars, or two days.

The East India Company had taken a loan amounting to some hundred thousand rupees from King Sukhamaya, who lived in Calcutta. When the company repaid the loan, the king did not accept it. Instead, he gave back this amount to the company requesting it to lay a road from Calcutta to Puri. This is how the work on building the road began. There used to be many stone bridges along the road. The government demolished all these small bridges and constructed a huge bridge. Even now, one comes across many small, old foot bridges. The part of the huge bridge built over river Kansabansa at Soro was constructed during Sukhamaya’s time. On both sides of this newly built bridge road rest houses having stone pillars, which could provide shelter to nearly four hundred pilgrims at a time, were constructed every ten miles apart. Two deep wells were dug near each rest house. With the passage of time, the government demolished all these rest houses as these were considered dilapidated and useless, and built roads with the bricks from them. The rest houses, which were built then in Bhadrak, Basta, Cuttack and on the banks of the river Brahmani still exist.

The rest houses provided pilgrims with shelter, but there was no place where they could get some food. An English sahib, John Bicher obtained some tax-free land from the government and built many guest houses and shops at Bicharganj in Balasore, at Mulida in Basta, at Markona in Balugaon, and also in Tangi and Cuttack. As people belonging to all castes and creeds came to stay in rest houses built by Sukhamaya, Hindu pilgrims were reluctant to cook there and went instead to stay in one of the guesthouses constructed by Bicher sahib. The local people set up bamboo sheds and shops, and in this way removed all the difficulties faced by the pilgrims. After the railways were laid, the bamboo shelters were removed from these places. Brajagupta babu has purchased this tax-free land from Bicher sahib’s heir, and it is now in his possession.

All the problems faced by pilgrims who flocked to Puri were more or less solved in this way. They were now safe from beasts, but they suffered in the hands of dacoits, who were devils incarnate, for a long time. They roamed freely on the main road that ran from Medinipur to Bhadrak. The western part of that road lay through dense forests. They set up their camp in the forest as they could hide themselves easily there and carry on their cruel trade. The government tried for a long time to capture them, but in vain. Narayangarh was a major site of operation of the dacoits. We have heard that hundreds of innocent people were robbed and murdered in the bamboo forests here. Forty years ago, when this writer travelled to Calcutta in a bullock cart, the cart driver and other fellow-travellers pointed these dangerous places to him. A saying was popular in that locality for a long time — Rub turmeric paste on your body, hope to meet your kith and kin only after you safely cross Narayngarh.

Earlier, pilgrims never dared pass through Narayangarh after sunset, none of them dared pass through it alone in the day time ; they always took care to travel through Narayangarh in a group. Pilgrims who were not aware of the danger that awaited them in Narayangarh were undone. In those days, the affluent people used to travel in bullock carts. The rich travelled riding palanquins. Thousands of bullock carts from places around Cuttack and Padmapur were engaged in carrying goods and passengers. Those unfortunate cart drivers lost their sources of livelihood after trains and steamers were introduced.

In the Lord’s universe, the fall of sinners is inevitable. Even though the dacoits carried out their operations with great care, their end was imminent.

Once the assistant magistrate of Balasore (later he became a judge at the High Court), Rempini sahib was on his way to Calcutta from Balasore riding a palanquin. Dacoits looted his palanquin at a place that lay between Basta and Haldipada. Usually, dacoits never attacked the British, for they knew that they might get away with murdering a local chieftain, but they would never be spared if they ever so much as touched the sacred white skin. They had looted Rempini sahib’s palanquin by mistake. One Telugu moneylender lived in Balasore. His name was Narikeli Meli Jogeya. He was a rich man. He had made a lot of money by selling salt. The dacoits had received information that Jogeya babu’s palanquin would be carried down that road on that day. But, for some reason, he decided against undertaking the journey and Rempini sahib travelled to Calcutta riding the palanquin meant for Jogeya babu. Robbing a sahib was no small matter. It created quite a stir among the magistrates. The police went and searched frantically the places close to Basta police station. The government spent lots of money; many innocent people were dragged to the police station, but in vain. It seemed as if the dacoits had descended from the sky and the objects they had looted had vanished into the thin air. And the moment the investigation stopped, three, four incidents of looting took place. Madanmohan Das, a landlord, who resided in Balasore, owned an estate in Basta. Land revenue amounting to twelve hundred rupees had been collected from here. The dacoits took this money away. A particular incident of dacoity may be mentioned here. A man called Bamana Bhuyan lived in a village called Charigaon, which lay four miles away from Basta police station. A gang of dacoits assaulted him and his family. He had two wives. One of them was pregnant. The cruel dacoits beat her mercilessly; as a result, she miscarried, and she breathed her last four days later. The second wife managed to save her life by running away. The dacoits beat Bamana Bhuyan brutally and twisted his neck so hard his face turned to his backside. Bamana Bhuyan had not let the dacoits off easily. He had attacked two, three dacoits and killed one of them. The dacoits carried the dead body of their comrade away.

The Bengal police had recently reshuffled the police department. The first police district superintendent of Balasore, Mr. Shuttleworth sahib tried his best but failed to arrest the dacoits and came back from the Basta area. He now entrusted the sub-inspector Rajkishore Choudhury with the task of capturing the dacoits. Choudhury babu enjoyed considerable reputation as an efficient police officer. The munsi of Rajghat police station, Digamabar Das and the munsi of Jaleswar police station, Kinaram Pradhan joined him.

As instructed by higher authorities, Rajkishore Choudhury and his team lived in Charigaon, where the dacoity had taken place. When he reported his failure to the superintendent after much futile search, the latter wrote back to him these encouraging lines, ‘Your way of investigation is satisfactory. As long as the dacoits are not captured, do not leave Charigaon.’ This is the hallmark of British character. This is why they are the victors and we are the vanquished. When we meet failure in any endeavour, we feel discouraged and lose heart in no time. But the British approach things in a very different way. They are always goal-oriented. People say, ‘One who works hard never has to beg.’ The following incident illustrates this saying. Rajkishore babu’s method of investigation was as follows: Every night, he would take three, four police officials with him and go on patrolling in civilian dress in the neighbourhood villages of Charigaon. Their intention was to monitor the movements of the villagers and to listen to their conversation. In rural areas, untouchables were usually involved in acts of theft. So, the team spent most of the nights in places where the untoucahbles lived. Every day, they would sit at the backyard of untouchable households and eavesdropped to their conversation. Readers can easily imagine how painful this experience must have been to these gentlemen. The roofs of these houses usually hung so low that even while sitting, one’s head touched the roof. The backyards of the houses were filthy, grimy and stinking. Mosquitoes swarmed around the place and one could do nothing to drive them away. One also had to guard against snakes and bears. Again, one ran the terrible risk of being caught by the untouchables. The team had no other option as they had to make sure they did not lose their jobs.

One day, at midnight, while hiding at the back of such ahouse, they heard a young woman telling her mother, weeping, ‘He was not willing to go, but father forced him to join him. Now he has lost his life for no good reason. What shall I do now?’

Next morning, Rajkishore babu arrived in the village with his team. After investigation, it was found that the woman’s father and husband both belonged to a gang of dacoits. Her husband got killed and her father was injured during a loot. Two other dacoits, who had been injured, were caught. The loot was recovered. About fifteen dacoits were sentenced to rigorous punishment by the sessions court. As far as we know, they never returned to their families.

Though this particular gang of dacoits was caught and punished, the authorities could not live in peace because it came to their knowledge that the dacoits who had robbed Rempini sahib belonged to another gang, which was actually the most notorious, powerful gang. They set up their camp in the dense forest of Mayurbhanj. This gang consisted of nearly fifty dacoits. They raided different places, sometimes unitedly and sometimes in smaller groups

The higher authorities put their trust upon Sarada Prasad Ghosh, the inspector at Balasore sadar police station, a very competent officer. He was given the task of locating and capturing the dacoits. After lots of efforts, Sarada babu managed to find out the place where the dacoits camped.

There was a narrow path that ran from Baripadagarh of Mayurbhanj to Jaleswar. One day, at noon, three beggars, keeping a distance of half a mile from each other, walked along this path. Behind them walked an astrologer. From his appearance he seemed to belong to a well-to-do family, but his clothes indicated his poverty. He wore a coarse and shabby khadi cloth, which hardly reached down to his knees. He had wound a towel, dirty and coarse like the cloth he was wearing, round his head. In another towel, he carried two seers of rice and a few coins. Palm leaves were tucked under his arms. He held a bamboo staff and a palm-leaf umbrella on his shoulder. In those days, people rarely used umbrellas made of clothes. By a stroke of luck, the astrologer came across two dacoits. He told them of his poverty and his erudition. Here is a summary of what the astrologer told the dacoits: that he was a very good astrologer; that his calculations were unfailingly accurate, that the king of Mayurbhanj held him in high esteem, so on and so forth. The two dacoits consulted each other and said, ‘You must meet our leader. If what you say is true, we will not rob you of your belongings.’ The astrologer agreed to accompany them with great reluctance and the two dacoits blind-folded him and led him through the dense forest down a rocky winding road. The astrologer took care to break off little twigs of roadside trees while being led. After they had travelled two, three miles, they arrived at the camp of the dacoits. When the blind-fold was removed, the sight of the camp scared the astrologer to death. Unless one was a very brave man, one could never keep one’s cool there.

In the middle of the deep forest, a small area had been cleared. Two, three fires burnt there, about six cooking pots had been kept on the boil. The place was filled with the stench of dried and left-over meat. Axes, spears, weapons, bows, arrows and many other weapons hung from tree branches. A few huge men rolled in the dust, completely drunk. They all wore loin clothes; all were stoutly built and looked like buffaloes. Someone mocked at another in a sharp voice for no good reason; yet another kept singing in a hoarse voice. Everyone looked hard at the astrologer. Their leader fixed his gaze on the astrologer scanning him from toe to top for a long while, and then asked the two dacoits rudely, ‘Who the hell is he? Why have you brought him here?’ The two dacoits introduced the astrologer to him. Here it will be in order to say a few words about the leader. This gang had two leaders, namely Nalu Mirdha, and Baidee Sethi. Nalu Mirdha was well-built and sturdy; his eyes were blood-shot and as big as crow’s eggs. He looked terrifying like a demon. At this time, Nalu Mirdha was present.

The conversation between the astrologer and Nalu Mirdha went like this:

Nalu: Are you an astrologer?

Astrologer: Yes.

Nalu: Tell me, what is passing through my mind?

The astrologer sang many slokas and made many calculations. He kept repeating the names of planets and stars and nothing else. Then he said, ‘My calculations tell me that, Saturn is favourable to you – this planet brings you wealth.’

Nalu: Then tell us, what direction should we take to find wealth?

Once again the astrologer recited many slokas and said, ‘The eastern direction.’ *

(*Once this writer had a chat with the ‘astrologer’. I asked, ‘How could you say so confidently that they would find wealth if they went in the eastern direction?’ The astrologer – he was none other than Sarada babu – said, ‘The thieves and dacoits had no other concern than wealth. The jungle lay on three sides; there were villages only on the eastern side. These they could loot.’)

All the dacoits cried out, excitedly, ‘Very well indeed! Very well! You’re really a good astrologer. Or else the king of Mayurbhanj would not have invited you to go to his court.’

Nalu: Tell us, what time and which day would be the most auspicious for the raid?

Astrologer: Next Saturday, which is the twelfth day of the fortnight; if you start your journey in the evening that day, you’ll surely be successful.

All the dacoits said, ‘Very well, very well. If we start in the evening, we will reach the village at midnight.’ The astrologer now wanted to leave. He was again blindfolded; the two dacoits who had brought him led him away.

The appointed day arrived. The police party remained on the alert. The calculation of the astrologer was right, the dacoits came, but they did not come to the village in which the police were waiting to arrest them. They looted another village and went away without any difficulty.

Two, three months passed. Two, three incidents of dacoity took place during this time. This caused the authorities and the police great anxiety. Sarada babu had visited the den of the dacoits, and he knew it would not be easy to capture them with the help of a police force. The dacoits were always combat-ready. If the police raided their den, many lives would be lost.

After a lot of investigation, the police learnt that the servant of a landlord in Basta was complicit with the dacoit gang. Sarada babu took that servant into his confidence with the help of the landlord. He lured him by giving him some hard cash, and gave him assurance of protection and extracted all necessary information from him. On Sarada babu’s advice, that servant went and informed Nalu Mirdha that two dacoits had escaped from the prison, and were hiding in a village. When the leader heard this he very willingly called for them. The escaped dacoits presented themselves before the leader along with the servant. Initially, the leader and other dacoits were suspicious of them, but their suspicion did not last long after they watched these two dacoits’ manners. They described how they had committed robbery at two places, how they drew up a plan before committing a dacoity, how they escaped when caught, how to break out of a jail so vividly that Nalu ustad began to look upon them as experts and allowed them to join his gang. The newly arrived dacoits stayed at the camp for a long time. They sent information about the camp through the servant.

One day, these two newly arrived dacoits suggested that the gang should not waste time committing petty robberies and that they all must plan a big venture. They said, ‘Let’s loot a rich man so that we can sit and enjoy ourselves for one year without having to exert ourselves. If we work all the time, where do we find the time for enjoyment? And then there is always the fear of being caught if we go out frequently.’ The leader and his comrades liked this brilliant proposal. All showered praise on these two dacoits. They called a meeting on a particular day to decide on this proposal; all the gangs of dacoits who operated between Bhadrak and Medinipur were invited to come to the camp. During that time, many small groups were active at different places, but they were led by Nalu Mirdha and Baidee Shethi. These two got a share of the loot from every robbery.

Today, the gang was having a big party. All the dacoits from the area lying between Bhadrak to Medinipur had gathered at the camp to plan a big dacoity. Large quantities of liquor, tadi, ganja had been procured for this occasion. One did not have to ask for anything; one could eat as much as one liked. Eight, ten goats and lambs were stolen from villages. Some of the dacoits were busy preparing meat curry. The newly arrived dacoits had borne the expenses of today’s feast. Many of the dacoits had drunk themselves senseless. All were dancing and enjoying themselves. They were in the middle of a dense forest and the nearest village lay four miles away. Around 1.00 a.m. guns were fired around the camp. Letting out a loud cry, nearly fifty constables, one hundred and fifty chowkidars, police inspectors and sub inspectors pounced on the dacoits. Though the dacoits were drunk, they were still quite alert. In the darkness, they fought fiercely with the police for nearly an hour. In the end, the dacoits were overpowered.

Finally, when a light was lit, it was found that the two leaders, Nalu Mirdha and Baidee Sethi had slipped away. A few other dacoits were also missing. Some of the constables, soldiers and guards had been mistaken for dacoits and tied up. The two newly arrived dacoits, who were actually two constables in disguise, were found to have been bound up.

Most of the dacoits were sentenced to deportation. Some of them were awarded long prison terms. We have not heard of any incident of a big dacoity taking place in northern Balasore since that day.

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