The story of the 1980’s blinding incident
A scene from the 2003 film Gangajal is still remembered. The police first brutally beat the prisoners in the jail and then a policeman opened the eyes of the prisoners and poured acid from a car battery into them. After burning his eyes with acid, the character says, ‘Today we will cleanse the whole of Tejpur with this Ganga water’. The people of Tezpur are so disturbed by the increasing crimes against women that they feel that violence is the only way to get justice. This scene from the movie is still very popular even today, but this scene looks like it is only for the movie screen, it has nothing to do with reality. But not so, the barbarism shown in this scene is the truth of life of some people of Bhagalpur, Bihar.
‘Inside the police station the policemen would gouge out eyes with sticks, then inject acid with syringes and say Bhagalpur has been sanctified!’,
1980 is a black page in the history of Bihar, the story of which still shakes the soul of people. The Bihar Police had perpetrated a scam that shook everyone’s hearts. The victims of this incident will not forget it till death. Even after 44 years, the situation remains the same. The eyes were taken away but the victims are still sitting with open arms hoping for help from the government. This painful incident by the Bihar Police is known as eye-opening incident. Bollywood filmmaker Prakash Jha made a movie called Gangajal on this incident. Actor Ajay Devgn played the lead role in it. The incident was conducted in several police stations including Rajon Police Station in Banka, Kotwali Police Station in Bhagalpur, Akbarnagar Police Station, Barari Police Station, Ishkachak Police Station.
The victim told the story of the eye-popping incident.
The 70-year-old victim, Bhola Chaudhary, resident of Barari, Bhagalpur, who lost both his eyes, is still alive. Talking to TV9, he said that it was in 1980 when I was returning from my in-laws. Meanwhile the policemen caught me near Akbarnagar, they started asking where are you coming from? I said that I was returning from my in-laws in Agarpur, after which the policemen started beating me, then tied us inside a car and took us to Rajaun police station. Here our eyes were poked out with a ‘taqwa’, a thick sharp needle used for sewing sacks, then we were blinded by injecting acid into our eyes with a syringe. The police used to call acid ‘Gangajal’.
33 people were tortured
After this was done, the next day a doctor was called to the police station and checked to see if anyone could be seen. I was in so much pain, I had a bug in my eye. Whenever I asked why they were doing this to us, the policemen started using their batons. At Rajaun Police Station we were with 9 people who were subjected to this. This crime was committed against 33 people across Bhagalpur. Only 750 rupees per month is received from the government in the name of help. If the government wants to help us, fine, otherwise we will live like this. Bhola Chaudhary was the second of the 33 people to have their eyes gouged out. Bhola Chaudhary has two daughters. Currently he lives on government land in Barari, Bhagalpur with his daughter and son-in-law.
What was the blink of an eye?
In the year 1980, the photographs of the victims of the eye gouging incident were published in the newspaper. These pictures shocked people badly. Noted newspaper reporter Arun Sinhan told Central Jail Superintendent Bachchu Lal Das about the entire episode. Between 1979 and 1980, policemen immediately took the law into their own hands and blinded 33 under-trial persons in jails and police stations to curb crime. Policemen believed that this was the most effective way to curb crime. The news of this sensational incident spread like wildfire across the country. Although the public strongly supported the policemen after the incident, it later drew a lot of criticism. After the incident, many policemen were transferred from Bhagalpur.
How did the police handle the incident?
The police would make the under-trials lie in beds inside the police station, then some people would climb on top of them, grab their hands and feet, and pierce both eyes of the accused several times with eight- to nine-inch-thick needles. Takua called was given, then the eye was pressed hard. After making a hole with a needle, the eye was squeezed out. After this acid was added to it. Despite being subjected to such torture, no treatment was given to him. Many people who were completely innocent were tortured during the eye-lashing incident. Even today people laugh after hearing the story of this incident.
