Akku Yadav (1972–2004) was an Indian serial criminal, involved in activities such as robbery, home invasion, kidnapping, rape and murder. On 13 August 2004, hundreds of women took revenge by stabbing him to death in Nagpur District Court in Vidarbha, Maharashtra.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Akku Yadav alias Bharat Kalicharan Yadav was born in 1972 (age 32 years at the time of death) in Nagpur, Maharashtra. He grew up in a slum in Kasturba Nagar, Nagpur, Maharashtra. According to the Netflix series ‘Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom’ (2022), he studied till 7th grade after which he dropped out of school.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 6″
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: black
Family
parents and siblings
His father was a milkman. He had six brothers and six sisters. His two brothers were Santosh and Yuvraj and his eldest brother was a government employee. All six brothers of Akku were criminals.
Wife
He was unmarried at the time of his death.
Akku Yadav- a serial rapist
Akku Yadav lived in a slum and had started a small business in an area dominated by Dalit people. Akku Yadav belonged to the general class and considered himself an upper caste man. After his father’s death, his brothers sold their cows for livelihood. Soon, they became very poor, and Akku followed the footsteps of his elder brothers and started getting involved in criminal activities. Initially, he started by stealing money and invading her house. Gradually he started committing heinous crimes like murder, kidnapping and rape. He mostly carried out his criminal activities in the slum area where he lived. Then the people of the slum area complained against him, but he had the support of the local police and some politicians. He used to bribe the local police, so the local police never arrested him. This gave him the power to freely carry out criminal activities in his area. There was a woman named Asha Bhagat in Akku’s area who was not afraid of him. She used to sell liquor in the area. Asha was very upset with Akku’s objectionable activities in the area. Then Asha along with some others planned to teach Akku a lesson. One night Asha’s people sat down to drink alcohol with Akku. After Akku became more drunk, people started beating him, but somehow Akku escaped. Akku suffered serious injuries and then his friend Avinash Tiwari gave him blood and saved his life. Avinash had a good bonding with Asha which Akku did not like. One day there was an argument between Akku and Avinash regarding Asha, then Akku got so angry that he went to his house and brought a knife and attacked Avinash Tiwari. However, Akku was released from jail within 10 months. Then he started roaming freely in the slum. After this Akku planned to murder Asha Bhagat. One day Akku entered his house and brutally murdered him. He cut her body into many pieces. Akku Yadav used to keep an evil eye on the women of the slum area. He started molesting and raping women in his area. In about 10 years, he raped about 40 women in the slum. He even stabbed some women who complained against him. The people of the slum were so afraid of him that whenever he roamed around the slum, women and girls would hide inside their houses and the men of the slum would avoid eye contact with him. Once, a woman named Pratibha Urkude and her husband Dattu told that they ran a grocery shop in the slum area where Akku lived. Akku often harassed them by picking up goods from the shop without paying. He also used to demand money from them. Akku never allowed people to talk in the group because he believed that they would plot against him. Once he raped a 10 year old girl. According to one of his neighbours,
Yadav was ‘Gabbar Singh of Kasturba Nagar’. When Akku was around we mostly stayed indoors. Yadav and his gang used to attack houses at any time of the day. He sometimes wanted a motorcycle or snatched a mobile phone or extorted money. Yadav and his gang members used to beat up anyone who opposed them. He murdered a woman named Asha Bai, daughter of Anjana Bai Borkar, in front of her 16-year-old granddaughter. He cut off a woman’s ears for her earrings and her fingers because he couldn’t find her rings.”
Once another victim of Akku Yadav, a woman, had said this.
He came to our house at 4:00-5:00 in the morning. Yadav knocked on the door aggressively saying he was a police officer and asked us to open it. Once Yadav came inside, he stabbed my husband with a knife on his thigh, locked him in the bathroom and dragged me by my hair to a place where he raped me. Yadav allowed me to return after three or four hours.
In 1999, he was detained for a year under the Maharashtra Preventive Detention Act. He was also arrested more than 10 times by the local police, but was always released on bail because of his good relations with the local police and some politicians. After this Akku continued his criminal activities in the area. He once beat up an elderly man for not paying Rs 100, he raped a woman soon after her wedding and later, he stripped a man naked and burnt him with a cigarette. She then forced the man to dance naked in front of her daughter. Akku also cut off the breasts of some women living in his area. A woman burnt herself after being raped by Akku and the local police did not listen to her complaint. In 2004, there were about 300 families living in the slum area of Akku Yadav, and one such family was that of Madhukar. Madhukar had a daughter named Usha, who was studying hotel management in a college away from the slum and lived in a hostel. During her college holidays, she came to her parents’ house to spend holidays. While she was at her home, Akku Yadav’s goons attacked Usha’s neighbors when she complained against Akku Yadav. Hearing the screams of her neighbours, she came out of her house and told the goons to leave the family or else she would file a police complaint against them. When Akku Yadav came to know about this, he along with his gang came to Usha’s house and threatened her. Akku threw an acid bottle at the door of her house and warned her that if she complained about him he would throw acid on her face and rape her. Then Usha’s parents opened the door, but Usha was not afraid of Akku and replied that she would file a complaint against her. Just then Akku Yadav’s men forcefully entered the room. Usha ran to the kitchen and opened the knob of the kitchen gas and held the matchbox in her hand. She said that if they did anything to her parents or her she would burn the matchstick. Akku Yadav got scared and went back with his people. This incident changed the lives of the people of the slum area.
Usha Narayane
The people of the colony, who were watching the incident from their windows, saw Akku Yadav afraid of someone for the first time. Then they decided to form a team to get rid of Akku Yadav. The next day after the incident, the slum people gathered and went to Akku’s house. They set his house on fire, but Akku was not present at his home.
Akku Yadav’s house
When Akku Yadav came to know that the slum people were searching for him, he ran away. He then went to the local police and surrendered for his crimes. He thought that the police station would be the safest place to protect himself from the slum people. He also knew that the local police was with him and he would soon be out on bail. The slum people were very upset about this because they knew that Akku would come out on bail and continue his criminal activities in the slum area.
Death
After surrendering before the local police, Akku Yadav stood trial in the Nagpur District Court in Vidarbha, Maharashtra on 13 August 2004. When the people of the slum came to know about this, they knew that he would be released on bail. Therefore, the people of the colony decided that they would punish Akku Yadav themselves. Then about 200 women from Akku Yadav’s slum gathered in the court premises, where Akku Yadav was brought by the police. When Akku was walking towards the court room, he saw a woman in the crowd whom he had earlier raped. He loudly called her ‘Vaishya’ (prostitute). The woman standing silently got so angry at him that she took out her slippers, pushed the police and started beating Akku with the slippers. She shouted again,
This time, either I will kill you, or you will kill me.”
Within seconds, a crowd of women hiding red chilli powder and knives in their sarees threw chilli powder in the eyes of the police. When Akku Yadav was left alone, the women threw red chilli powder all over his body, took out a knife and stabbed him to death. Then a woman cut off his genitals because Akku had earlier cut off her breasts. When she was insulted, she even pleaded for forgiveness, but the women did not stop. Within five minutes the court premises were colored red with Akku’s blood.
Court premises where Akku Yadav was beaten to death
Result
After killing Akku Yadav, the bleeding women proudly walked towards their slum. After reaching the slum, he proudly told the people that he had taken his revenge. There was a celebration in the colony. People cooked lamb and distributed sweets in the area. Police speculated that the women were led by Usha, although she was not present in the court. After investigation by Akku’s men, the local police arrests Usha. When the local people got the news of Usha’s arrest, they started protesting in front of the local police station. Then due to lack of evidence against Usha, she was released. Later, while talking to journalists, senior officials of the local police said.
The lynching was done by four people with sharp weapons and the women of Kasturba Nagar took the responsibility of lynching to save those men. There were at least two rival gangs operating in the settlement and Eknath Chavan, who had defected from Akku, was a member of the rival gang. Eknath Chavan and his gang members had manipulated the women into providing cover to kill Akku.
Talking about the incident, Bhau Vahane, a retired high court judge, said,
The circumstances they went through left them with no option but to eliminate Akku. The women kept pleading with the police for their safety again and again. But the police failed to protect them.”
When journalists asked brother-in-law More, one of Akku Yadav’s victims, about the lynching. He said,
I am proud of what we did… If anyone has to be punished then we all will be punished. We women have become fearless. We were protecting people.”
The local police arrested 21 people in the lynching case, 3 of whom died during the court hearing. Later all the remaining accused were released.
Facts/General Knowledge
- In 2011, a Hindi documentary titled ‘Candles in the Wind’ was released which is based on the lynching of Akku Yadav.
- On 4 December 2013, Mukri Chhotalal Yadav, nephew of Akku Yadav, was stabbed by two teenagers for sexually assaulting a teenage grandmother.
- In 2015, a Telugu film titled ‘Keechka’ based on the story of Akku Yadav and his lynching was released.
Keechak (2015)
- In 2021, a Hindi film titled ‘200 Halla Ho’ was released on Zee5, which featured the story of Akku Yadav and his lynching.
200 Halla Ho (2021)
- Many books and articles have been published on the lynching of Akku Yadav. Some of these are ‘Half the Sky: Transforming Oppression into Opportunity for Women Around the World,’ ‘News of Boundless Riches: Interrogating, Comparing, and Reconstructing Mission in a Global Era,’ and ‘Killing Justice: Vigilantism in Nagpur. ‘
- The Hindi Netflix series ‘Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom’ was released in 2022.
Murder in the Courtroom (2022)
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn