ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Dacoits strike terror in Chambal valley once again

The Chambal ravines of northern Madhya Pradesh have become a centre of inter-state gangs of dacoits which mainly indulge in abductions for ransom.

Nine dacoit gangs active in the region find the common border of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan suitable for their criminal activities as they could easily dodge the police by escaping to the neighbouring state after committing a crime.

Police said more effective coordination between these three states were required to contain the dacoit menace in the border areas where the crime graph, particularly that of kidnappings, has shown a significant upward trend in the recent years.

In Madhya Pradesh alone, as many as 72 people were abducted in 43 incidents during last eight months in Gwalior, Shivpuri, Guna, Morena, Bhind, Datia and Sheopur districts. However, 51 of them have so far been freed from the clutches of the dacoits.

According to the police, the major dacoit gangs active in Chambal region include those of Nirbhaya Singh Gujar, Raju Kushwah, Raghuwar Gadaria, Hajrat Singh Rawat, Shivraj Singh Bhadoria, Janak alias Janak Singh Tomar, Bhura Gurjar and Sobran Singh Kushwah. All these gangs mainly abduct people belonging to well to do families and later release them after collecting huge ransom.

The police had a major success recently when a dreaded dacoit gang leader Haribaba, who had unleashed a rein of terror in the Chambal region, was shot dead in an encounter with the police in the forests in the northern part of the state. After Haribaba's elimination, the Nirbhaya Singh Gujar gang, which has ten members, was the biggest group of dacoits active in the region.

Reluctance of the local people to come forward and cooperate with the police was one of the major problem being faced in the anti-dacoit operations. Shortage of manpower, vehicles and communication facilities were the other problems.

Additional director general of police (CID) Sukhpal Singh said the police has mounted pressure on the dacoit gangs by intensifying search operations in the Chambal valley. Twenty companies of Special Armed Force have been deployed for the purpose and more forces would join them whenever required, he added.

Admitting that weak criminal intelligence network was a major problem faced by the police, he said a strategy had been chalked out so that the police could get timely tip-off about the movements of dacoits.

Besides, steps were also being taken to have better coordination between the police stations situated in the border areas of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. ''Our police station in-charges are in regular contact with their counterparts in these states'', he added.

Singh said 11 dacoits had been killed in encounters with the police during past eight months. Besides Haribaba, those who had been eliminated include notorious dacoit such as Bhura, Prema and Rambabu who were carrying a reward of Rs 25,000 each on their heads. He said the police had urged the state government to double the reward for the arrest of dacoit gang leaders Raju Kushwah, Ramesh Singh Kushwah and Raghuwar Gadaria from the present Rs 25,000.

Pointing out that as compared to 1997, the crime rate in the state had decreased by 6.82 per cent in 1998, he said only dacoity cases had marked an increase of 1.63 per cent in the corresponding period. Singh said at present dacoit activities in the state were confined to the Gwalior-Chambal region as the Dadua gang of Vindhya region was not active in Madhya Pradesh for the last two-and-a-half years.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report