Ramashish Koeri gang

This gang, along the with several other bandit groups were responsible for managing polling booths during elections, in favour of their preferred candidate, and hence they enjoyed political support to carry out their activities.^[10] The gang was involved in criminal activities which included dacoity, kidnapping and murder. The gang also included members like Daroga Lohar and Narayan Kushwaha; latter used to collect the ransom in cases of kidnapping from the family of the victims. The possible hideouts of these gangsters were the hilly terrain of the Rohtas pleatue, where they used to hide the kidnapped children. In a search operation conducted in these hills, several skeletons of adolescent children were found by the Police.^[11]

The Kaimur hills of Rohtas district was considered as the crime hotspot by the Bihar police in the 1980s and 1990s. As per reports, few caste groups had made the criminal activities as their livelihood and there used to be implicit support of the politicians from these particular castes groups to the gangsters and dacoits of their respective castes. Mohan Bind, who was the leader of Ramashish Koeri gang earlier, was known as "Raja" or the "King of Kaimur pleatue". After death of both Ramashish Koeri and Mohan Bind, Kameswar Koeri, who was named in a number of criminal cases became the new leader.^[12]

"Kameswar Koeri case" reveals the division in local media, as there emerged a conflict between various regional newspapers over defaming him or portraying him as victim. This case, which attracted attention of the local newspapers in late 1980s, revealed the struggle in between the various caste groups in the society of Bihar. A section of local media published a report branding him as the criminal before any trial in the court of law, to which, Kameswar responded by filing a suit against the respective newspaper houses and the death threats were also sent to the publishers. It was stated that news reports, which wanted to portray him as a criminal and confirmed his membership of the gang of Ramashish Koeri ran as counter to his ambition of joining the active politics. Since, Kameswar was supported by the MLA'S of Bihar Legislative Assembly belonging to his caste and also by the local Mukhiyas, who also hailed from his caste, the defaming news reports were making his entry into the politics of state difficult.^[12]

On 14 November 1987, Kameswar Koeri was arrested, while he was collecting ransom at Bhabua, but later he was released on bail. He was also the main accused in "Gopal Sharma murder case" and attack on Indian National Congress leader Surendra Tiwari in 1983. He was named in half dozen other cases too, which included the Chenari massacre 1of 986 and the "1988 Konar massacre" in which he was assisted by Radhakishan Koeri (alias "Langda Dada"). He used to operate from the Sasaram prison, when arrested. In 1992, he was again arrested on charge of possessing lethal weapons but again out on bail.^[12] The gang was also responsible for massacre of five members of the Yadav caste on September 22, 1986, which included a woman. This incident broke the lull in the gang wars between the Yadav and Koeri led gangs in Rohtas district.^[13] Many sources suggest that gang was responsible for killing persons over than 1000 in number.^[14]

In 1986, Bindeshwari Dubey's government launched Operation Black Panther 2 and later Operation Kaimur was also launched to take on the dacoits and improve law and order situation in the Bhojpur and Kaimur region. In three more operations, about 20 dacoits were killed. Mohan Bind was killed around the same time.^[1] Daroga Lohar, one of the core member of the gang who was untraceable by the Bihar police was arrested in 2020, when the Bihar Legislative Assembly elections were going to be held.^[15]