The Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, a little-known outfit and reportedly a breakaway faction of Baba Jai Gurudev's followers, is in the news in the wake of a violent clash between its followers and the Uttar Pradesh Police in Mathura on Thursday night that has left 24 people, including two senior policemen, dead.
Mathura is represented in the Lok Sabha by BJP leader and Hindi film actress Hema Malini.
What is the organisation and what triggered the clash in the temple town?
Followers of the outfit, claiming to be devotees of Baba Jai Gurudev, reportedly resorted to violence after the Uttar Pradesh Police started evicting them from an encroached land on Thursday in compliance with an Allahabad High Court order. The followers were occupying about 250 acres of land of Jawahar Bagh in the temple town since 2014.
What do they want?
The Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, also being referred to as "Bose Sena," were demanding scrapping of elections in India for the post of president and prime minister (Lok Sabha elections in the case of the latter), sale of 60 litres of diesel and 40 litres of petrol at Re 1 each and replacement of the current Indian rupee with "Azad Hind Fauj" currency, according to the Indian Express.
When the police reached Jawahar Bagh to clear the area, Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi members started attacking the policemen with swords, knives, guns and grenades, forcing the police to open fire.
Another organisation named Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena was also protesting with the Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, according to another Indian Express report.
During the search operations conducted by the local police and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) on Friday, as many as 400 followers of the group were arrested.
However, Ram Vraksha Yadav, who happens to be leader of the outfit, and Chandan Gaur, "security officer" of the group, managed to escape along with thousands of supporters.
The clashes come even as Uttar Pradesh goes to polls in a few months, in early 2017.
