Kamdev Singh

Kamdev Singh was born circa 1930 into a Bhumihar family in the village of Naya Gaon, Matihani block, Begusarai district, Bihar.{{cite news |last=स्वरोची, दीपक सिंह |title=सम्राट कामदेव सिंह: बेगूसराय का वो नाम जो माफिया था और मसीहा भी |work=Aaj Tak |date=15 September 2020 |url=https://www.aajtak.in/elections/bihar-assembly-elections/story/kamdev-singh-begusarai-mafia-don-history-downtrodden-people-call-him-god-1129609-2020-09-15}} Little is recorded about his formal education; contemporaries describe him as semi-literate, having begun work as a cowherd before turning to crime.{{cite news |agency=Storizen |title=HarperCollins is proud to announce Kamdev Singh: The Original Godfather of Indian Politics by Santosh Singh |work=Storizen |date=2022}}

Singh began his criminal career in the late 1950s as a dacoit operating in northern Bihar. By the late 1960s, he had established a powerful smuggling network that extended from Begusarai into neighboring districts, Uttar Pradesh, Nepal, and major Indian cities such as Kolkata and Mumbai. He amassed firearms and “maintained an army of gunners, mercenaries, and smugglers,” and by 1979 carried a ₹10,000 police bounty on his head.{{cite news |first=Farzand |last=Ahmed |title=After 20 years of terrorising, Kamdeo Singh lived by the gun and died by it |work=India Today |date=15 May 1980 |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19800515-after-20-years-of-terrorising-kamdeo-singh-lived-by-the-gun-and-died-by-it-806652-2014-01-28}}{{cite news |title=Kamdeo Singh: The mafia don of Bihar as elusive as the Yeti |work=India Today |date=19 February 2014 |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19791031-kamdeo-singh-the-mafia-don-of-bihar-as-elusive-as-the-yeti-822453-2014-02-19}}

In the late 1960s and 1970s, Begusarai was known as the “Leningrad of the East” for its powerful Communist Party of India (CPI) presence. Singh emerged as the leading anti-communist enforcer in the region, engaging in violent confrontations that left dozens dead. His supporters viewed him as a Robin Hood-like figure opposing CPI excesses, while critics decried his use of terror to influence local politics.{{cite news |last=Anand |first=Saffron |title=Saffron is the new red in Bihar’s Leningrad |work=The Times of India |date=5 September 2015 |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/saffron-is-the-new-red-in-bihars-leningrad/articleshow/49030326.cms}}

He was frequently hired by political parties to carry out booth-capturing during elections, a practice well-documented in studies of money and muscle power in Indian politics.{{cite book |last=Vaishnav |first=Milan |title=When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2017 |page=82 |isbn=978-0-300-22474-0}}

Singh's reputation for decisive action made him a go-to enforcer for local Congress and allied candidates. In the 1969 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, he forcibly seized as many as 34 polling booths in Matihani, ensuring a decisive victory for his patrons.{{cite news |last=राजेंद्र राजन |first= |title=बूथ कब्जाने का जनक: कामदेव सिंह के किस्से |work=Aaj Tak |date=15 September 2020}}

On 15 May 1980, after multiple failed raids and tip-offs by corrupt officers, a combined force of Bihar Police and CRPF conducted a silent night operation in Naya Gaon. Accounts state that an alert Singh fled toward the Ganges but was shot and killed in an ensuing encounter; his body, discovered on the riverbank the next morning, bore wounds consistent with both gunfire and injuries from a fall.{{cite news |last=स्वरोची, दीपक सिंह |title=बिहार: कैसे हुआ था सम्राट कामदेव का एनकाउंटर? एसपी की पत्नी ने सुनाई दास्तां |work=Aaj Tak |date=15 October 2020 |url=https://www.aajtak.in/elections/bihar-assembly-elections/story/taskar-samrat-kamdev-singh-mystery-about-his-encounter-who-was-kamdev-singh-1145866-2020-10-15}} His son, Rajkumar Singh, later alleged that the police “wrongly targeted” his father and that his death was an extrajudicial killing.

Singh was survived by his wife and two sons. His elder son, Rajkumar Singh, entered electoral politics as an LJP candidate from Matihani in 2020, invoking his father's legacy among voters.{{cite news |last=KV Network |title=Begusarai: ‘तस्कर सम्राट’ कामदेव सिंह के बेटे राजकुमार को LJP ने दिया टिकट |work=Aaj Tak |date=15 October 2020 |url=https://www.aajtak.in/elections/bihar-assembly-elections/story/bihar-election-ljp-gave-ticket-to-kamdev-singh-son-rajkumar-singh-tstb-1146142-2020-10-15}}

Locally, Kamdev Singh is remembered ambivalently: celebrated by some as a protector of the downtrodden—earning monikers like “Robin Hood” and “God”—and reviled by others for his brutal methods and reign of terror.

Santosh Singh's Kamdev Singh: The Original Godfather of Indian Politics (2022) chronicles his life and times.

Multiple documentaries and regional news segments have been produced, highlighting his dual image as a feared don and a folk-hero.{{cite news |last=KV Studio |title=कहानी बिहार वाले सम्राट कामदेव सिंह की |work=Facebook/kvnewsnetworkliv |date=2023}}

• Begusarai
• List of Indian gangsters
• Money and muscle politics in India

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Category:Criminals from Bihar

Category:Indian anti-communists

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