14 hours agoWriters: Ashish Urmalia
50 years ago today i.e. on April 7, 1972, a child was born in the Kurmi family of Lokharia Purva village of Chitrakoot district. The name was Ambika Patel. The child grew up, became quicker in reading. With graduation in the year 1992, he started dreaming of becoming a doctor. In the same year, an incident happens in his life which makes him the most ruthless dacoit of entire North India including Bundelkhand.
In today’s dacoit ki Kahani 1 the story is of the 6 lakh prize thokia dacoit who had made the Uttar Pradesh government sleepless.
Unmarried sister became pregnant, police scolded her and drove her away
In 1992, Ambika Patel learns that her sister is pregnant without marriage. When he asked the sister, the sister cried and said, “Brother, I have been raped. She was scared of the slander of the family, so she tolerated it.
symbolic picture
Ambika ran to the police. The police shooed him away. Then he called a panchayat. The Panches and the villagers raised questions on his sister and lit up both. Finally Ambika asked the boy to marry his sister in front of the panchayat. The boy refused on the face. Ambika killed the boy without delay and made the ravines of Bundelkhand as his base.
The one whom he killed was the nephew of the infamous dacoit Omnath.
After killing her sister’s rapist, Ambika wanted to kill her entire family. As soon as Omnath, the famous dacoit of that time came to know about this, he announced to kill Ambika on the loudspeaker. Actually, Omnath seemed to be the uncle of that rapist boy. After this announcement, Ambika took shelter of Dadua, the biggest dacoit of the ravine, to increase her strength. Go ahead, tell him that the next story will be of Daku Dadua.
Police searching for Thokia in the jungles
Ambika Patel became a certified robber after the second murder
As soon as Dadua joined the gang, Ambika started carrying out many incidents like robbery, kidnapping. After many days, he came to his village to celebrate Dussehra, when Kalua Nishad of the village made him an informer to the police. The police surrounded Ambika’s village from all sides. But Ambika escaped, dodging the police. It was only two days that Ambika came to the village and hit the informer Kalua Nishad in broad daylight. After this murder, Dadua made him the main member of the gang and he became a dacoit.
After killing he would say, ‘I hit’ hence the name was thokia
After killing Kalua Nishad, a police informer, Ambika said, “It was my informer so I threw it at the middle of the crossroads.”
He then announced, “Anybody having any kind of relationship with the family members of my sister’s rapist will be thrown at the crossroads. He even stopped talking to that family.” “
symbolic picture
After this incident people started calling Ambika as ‘Thokia’. Many gang dacoits also started calling him by names like ‘Doctor Ramswaroop’ and ‘Lutwa Patel’.
Half the village was burnt to kill the enemy dacoit Omnath.
Thokia continued to commit murders. His voice started speaking all over Chambal. His gang was getting bigger. After becoming powerful, Thokia put his informers behind the dacoit Omnath. The same dacoit Omnath who was the uncle of the rapist and had threatened to kill Thokia. Thokia started getting information about each and every movement of Omnath from the informers.
symbolic picture of village burning
On 16 July 2003, Thokia got information that the robber Omnath is going to stay at his house tonight. The same night Thokia reached his house with a gang of 40 people. As soon as he arrived, he started firing immediately. Along with Omnath’s house, about half the houses of the village were locked from outside and set on fire. There were only and only screams in the whole village. In this attack 6 people of Omnath’s family were killed and many people got burnt in the fire. The most surprising thing for Thokia was that Omnath had already run away before that attack.
Government employees of three states did not come out of the house in the evening
The police registers were being filled with the incidents of Thokia. He started making headlines in the newspapers. Till now 80 cases of murder, robbery, kidnapping had been registered against him. His fear had increased so much that government employees and influential people of three states- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh had stopped coming out of the house after sunset. Thokia used to make these people his target. There was no confidence when who would be kidnapped, who would be killed. Thokia used to target BSP leaders at the behest of Dadua.
Thokia’s countdown started as soon as the government changed
In the year 2007, there was a change of power in Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati government ordered strict action against the bandits. Special Task Force (STF) was formed. The STF made its first target on the biggest dacoit of that time and the guru of Thokia, Dadua. After months of hard work, the police killed Dadua in an encounter on 22 July 2007 in Jhalmal forest near Alha village under Manikpur police station area.
Police celebration turned into mourning, Thokia’s biggest scandal
On hearing the news of Dadua’s death, the government was overjoyed and the police started celebrating. Thokia was shocked by this news. On the same day i.e. July 22, 2007, it was raining heavily in the ravines. The 16 STF team was returning after killing Dadua. Unfortunately, the STF vehicle got stuck in a swamp near Koluha forest. It was night time, the young men got scared. He tried to connect to the nearest police station Fatehganj but could not get through.
STF personnel in Koluha forest
In the deserted forest, the sound of the car was going far and wide. This voice reached Thokia’s ears. Thokia along with his gang of 40 bandits reached near that car. The car was stuck in the swamp in such a way that no jawan was able to get out. 40 bandits simultaneously started firing on that car. The sound of gunfire created panic in the entire area. The car stopped suddenly, silence spread. Thokia thought everyone was killed and left from there.
Six police personnel and one informer were killed in this attack. 7 jawans were badly injured. This news reached the government and the police only a few hours after Dadua’s death. Their joy turned into mourning. The government was badly hit.
After the killing of 6 policemen, a reward of 6 lakhs was made.
After Dadua’s death, the Kurmi community started accepting Thokia as their messiah. His fear had increased so much that once he said it, any leader would win the election. Due to this his political hold had also strengthened. He was getting patronage from big leaders. So the police was finding it more difficult to catch him. However, this time his mess was directly with the government. After the death of 6 soldiers, the Mayawati government placed a reward of 6 lakhs on him.
Picture after killing of STF jawans
Thokia had become more dangerous than Dadua
The then Director General of Police (DGP) of UP, Vikram Singh had said in a press conference, “It is more difficult to catch Thokia than Dadua. The reason is that Dadua was 60 years old and Thokia is a 36-year-old young dacoit. Dadua was illiterate and Thokia is a graduate. He has also stopped talking on the phone to avoid surveillance.
Thokia was killed after a continuous 7-hour encounter
After months of hard work, in August 2008, the police learned that Thokia, along with a gang of 20 people, was about to carry out a major incident in the Karvi area of Chitrakoot. Without any delay, the police surrounded Thokia in the forest of Silkhori. Firing started from both the sides at 7 pm. This encounter went on for 7 consecutive hours i.e. till 2.30 pm. Thokia was killed.
However, some Thokia’s experts say that he was not killed by the police but by a dacoit Gyan Singh, a fellow of his gang.