In UP, ‘green gang’ resorts to violence to check violence

Gulabi Gang, then the Red Brigade, and now the Green Gang. Women vigilantes in Uttar Pradesh are gaining popularity and publicity with their fearless acts but some of them are now attracting criticism too. The latest group is the Green Gang that operates in Kannauj region.

This weekend, the Green Gang attracted a great deal of flak when its members publicly beat up a young married woman who was refusing to return to her in-laws’ home because she had been facing harassment there. In full public view, the Green Gang members beat up the girl, pulling her hair and hitting her with sticks in Tirwa area. The police chose to remain a mute spectator.

SP Kalanidhi Naithani said that the girls’ parents had sought the help of the Green Gang and both of them have been taking into custody. The girl apparently had been married to a boy in Aurraiyya district two years ago. After staying in her husband’s home for about a year, she returned to her parents’ home because she was being harassed for dowry.

The parents, after a few months, started forcing their daughter to return to her husband’s home but she refused. “The girl, on Saturday, had come to visit a relative in Tirwa when the Green Gang arrived there and pulled her out of the house,” said a source.

They dragged her by the hair for about 500 metres on the road and beat her up. The Green Gang then took the girl to her in-laws and left her there,” said a source.

The Green Gang — quite like the famous Gulabi Gang of Bundelkhand — has earned notoriety for using violence at every available opportunity.

A police officer, who was posted in Kannauj district till a few months back, said, “The Green Gang is worse than men when it comes to resorting to violence. They are a much feared name in the area and a major nuisance too. They slap officials, beat up men and now even women. People say that they take money for doing their job.”

Members of the Green Gang, when contacted, refused to speak on the incident.