The Ram Lalla idol was consecrated in the Bhavya Mandir at his Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya on 22nd January 2024. Marking the historic occasion, Hindus all across the world are remembering and paying tributes to all Ram Bhakts who sacrificed their everything and continued the struggle for reclamation of Ram Janmabhoomi for five centuries. At the same time, devotees have recalled the ordeals committed from the period of the Mughals to Mulayam Singh Yadav. During this period, unspeakable atrocities were meted out on Ram Bhakts including the massacre of Ram devotees.
In the discussion of these atrocities, the name of the then MP and Bahubali Munnan Khan was often mentioned. For those unversed, Former MP Munnan Khan, who died in 2009, is accused of killing kar sevaks in 1990 along with his henchmen while wearing a police uniform. OpIndia went to Gonda and gathered information about Munnan Khan’s criminal activities from several eyewitnesses.
Munnan Khan also wanted to capture the temple of the President of the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust
On 22nd September 2022, OpIndia published ground reports from the Nepal border. The title of the article was Temple of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Trust’s President also falls prey to ‘land jihad’, Muslims along Nepal border using Palestinian land grab model: Ground report. Back then, OpIndia had reported that the Hanuman Garhi Mandir located at Balrampur Veer Vinay intersection belongs to Mahant Nritya Gopal Das of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Trust.
Naresh Kumar, the manager of Hanuman Garhi Mandir, told OpIndia that Muslims have illegally encroached upon a large area of this temple, which they are gradually trying to reclaim.
Balrampur district government lawyer Pawan Shukla told OpIndia that Munnan Khan was also the mastermind of the illegal encroachment on the temple land. Around three decades ago, his men had illegally opened the Ajmeri Hotel adjacent to the temple.
Despite objections from the temple administration, meat and fish were sold at the Ajmeri Hotel. Gradually, Munnan Khan illegally encroached on a significant portion of the temple’s land through political patronage from the then Samajwadi Party government. Even today, the temple management has not been able to completely regain possession of the land illegally captured during Munnan Khan’s tenure. Additionally, Munnan Khan is accused of encroaching on the lands of many other individuals in Balrampur and Gonda.
Wanted to kidnap SDM and throw him in the kiln
During our visit, OpIndia spoke with Karsevak Mahant Ramswaroop Das, who survived despite being shot in 1990. While speaking to OpIndia, Mahant Ramswaroop Das made several revelations regarding Munnan Khan. He revealed that around 1990, Munnan Khan had also abducted an SDM in Balrampur. This kidnapping took place when he was contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Balrampur.
Munnan Khan, who had close ties with the world of crime, primarily operated a brick kiln. When his henchmen kidnapped the SDM and brought him back, they tried to throw him in the kiln. However, the administration intervened in time and the SDM’s life was saved. Mahant also claims that no action was taken against him because of his proximity to Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Had halted the supply of Hindus during the riots
Around 1985, Munnan Khan was a legislator from the Katra Vidhan Sabha constituency in Gonda. Gonda’s VHP leader Rakesh Verma told OpIndia that around 1988, extremist Muslims started riots when Hindus were carrying out a Shobhayatra in Colonelganj, Gonda. At that time, the radicals pelted stones on the statues of Goddess Durga and it is said that Munnan Khan was also involved in it.
In these riots, the police repressed only the Hindus. At that time curfew was being imposed for a long time and the Hindus of Colonelganj needed vegetables and other food items. In such a situation, Hindus living in the towns around Colonelganj tried to deliver food items to the riot-affected areas. Rakesh alleges that Munnan Khan pressured the administration to stop the delivery of food items on the way.
During that time, all the relief materials were thrown into the ponds. It is also alleged that Munnan Khan instigated attacks on Hindus with his gang during these riots. According to Rakesh Verma, despite the curfew, Muslim shops remained open. They roamed the markets all night without any hindrance. Rakesh attributed this one-sided administrative bias to the appeasement policy of the then government.
Backstabbed in the guise of Bhaichara (brotherhood)
Rakesh Verma, a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad known by the name Guddu, told us that Munnan Khan primarily operated a brick kiln business. He first became a legislator from the Katra Vidhan Sabha constituency in Gonda on the ticket of the Janata Dal in the year 1985. Katra is a Hindu-majority constituency. Munnan Khan presented himself as a messiah of brotherhood before the Hindus.
Munnan Khan had promised the Hindus to renovate all the dilapidated temples. Before the elections, he brought bricks from his kiln and laid them in front of the temples. When Munna Khan won the election, he drastically changed his behaviour and began openly engaging in anti-Hindu activities. He even had all the bricks that he had laid in front of the temples before the elections removed.
Preferred to be called Sher-e-Munnan
Rakesh Varma explained that in 1989, a Muslim man was called for questioning at the Khorahsa Police Outpost in Gonda. Upon returning home, the man died of known reasons. At that time, Munnan Khan took the body of the deceased Muslim man and went to Balrampur. There, he displayed the corpse and created a communal atmosphere that garnered him one-sided support and votes from Muslims.
VHP leader Rakesh Varma further told us that eventually Munnan Khan won those elections and was elected as an independent MP. Rakesh Varma recalled vividly that during the government of Vishwanath Pratap Singh (V.P. Singh), Munna Khan used to drive with a red beacon light on his car while other vehicles in the convoy used to blow hooters.
Rakesh Verma adds that Munnan Khan was made a member of the Public Grievance Committee in the VP Singh government. According to Rakesh Verma, Munnan Khan had a direct relationship with the then Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. Because of this, no administrative officer in the district could muster the courage to take any action against Munnan Khan.
Was more dangerous than a wild animal
Rakesh Varma recalls the decade of 1990. At that time, there used to be hundreds of people in Munnan Khan’s convoy, who used to take out processions on the streets. In these processions, they used to raise slogans of ‘Sher-e-Munnan Zindabad’. No one dared to stop Munnan’s procession. Rakesh Verma considers Munnan Khan to be Atiq Ahmed of Gonda. According to Rakesh, even today there are fans of Munna Khan present. For this reason, people are afraid to speak against him.
An Inspector posted in the Uttar Pradesh Police and a native of Gonda district, on the condition of anonymity, listed several crimes of Munnan Khan. He said, “In his time, Munnan Khan was more dangerous than any wild animal.” According to Pawan Shukla, a government lawyer from Balrampur district, it was under the patronage of Munna Khan that present-day criminals like Rizwan Zaheer flourished.
Was it a drama of madness or senility in old age?
OpIndia gathered more information about Munnan Khan from residents of the Gonda district. Some say that towards the end of his life, Munnan Khan had gone mad and used to wander on the streets aimlessly. Some people call it God’s punishment for his criminal deeds. While others told us that Munnan Khan used to think like a vicious criminal till his last breath.
Many people of Gonda see Munnan’s acting mad as a ploy to escape from all the cases registered against him. Many people, who are still afraid to speak on camera due to fear of Munnan, said that Munnan Khan knew that he could get severe punishment including a death sentence or life imprisonment in many cases. Therefore, at the last moment of his life, he pretended to be mad to deceive the law.
