The 2016 Mathura clash occurred on 2 June, 2016, when 2 policemen and about 24 squatters were killed in an armed conflict at Jawahar Bagh Park in Mathura city in Uttar Pradesh, India.
The squatters, an armed group led by a Ram Vriksh Yadav, once a follower of Jai Gurudev, had been occupying the site since 2014. Ram Vriksh Yadav, originally from Ghazipur, was running a parallel government, complete with administration, revenue and armed forces, within the park. It is alleged that it was believed by local administrators that Ram Vriksh Yadav was close to some of the politicians, and thus were unwilling to act. After a court ordered their eviction in 2016, the police tried to forcibly evict them. According to amateur criminal psychologist Dr. Nipu Kumar Das, panic compounded by extremist leadership led to mob violence. As a result, the squatters responded violently, killing two senior police officers, including the superintendent of police. The police then returned fire, killing several squatters.
Background
Since 2014, armed members of Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah, which portrayed itself as followers of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, had been squatting at Jawahar Bagh, a public park in Mathura. The members of the cult comprise individuals belonging to organizations variously named as Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi ("Free India Legal Satyagraha"), Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi ("Free India Legal Ideas Revolutionary Protesters"), Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena ("Free India Subhash Army").
The group has no direct connection with the Indian nationalist leader Subhash Chandra Bose (also known as Netaji), or the organization Forward Bloc founded by him.
Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi (or Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah) is a self-proclaimed revolutionary group, whose leader is one Ram Vriksh Yadav. He was assisted by Chandan Bose from Bengal. The finances were managed by Rakesh Babu Gupta from Badaun. Most of the followers were from eastern UP.
The group was formed by a breakaway group of the followers of the religious leader Jai Gurudev, who died in 2012. The group demands a complete overhaul of the British-inspired political system, including abolition of the top posts such as Prime Minister and President. Another major demand of the group is replacement of the current Indian rupee with the Azad Hind Bank currency. The group claims that the current currency has become "a slave of the dollar" because it is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India and the government. According to them, the uncontrolled Indian currency would have a much higher value against the dollar, resulting in lower fuel prices.
Another constituent group is the Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena, the armed wing of the Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi. Established in 2013, it is registered as a political party. Its members also claim a conspiracy behind the disappearance of Bose. In December 2014, an office bearer of the party demanded de-classification of documents related to Bose, and claimed that he was still alive.
In 2014, the Swadheen Bharat began a march from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh to Delhi in support of their demands. On the way, in April 2014, 500 members organized a demonstration in Mathura. The local administration had given them permission to demonstrate at Jawahar Bagh public park for two days. However, once they occupied the park, they refused to vacate it, and turned it into their headquarters. The militant group started indoctrinating local teenagers, seeking to overhaul the existing political system.
During 2014-2016, the group built a self-sustaining community within the park. They built huts and toilets, cultivated vegetables, and disallowed others from entering the park. By 2016, there were around 3000 squatters at the site: the Jawahar Bagh had turned into a quasi-republic with its own constitution, penal code, judicial system, prisons and army. The local residents described these people as "land grabbers and thugs".