In Pimpri-Chinchwad, young goons try to assert supremacy, ‘create terror’

Advocate Sachin Godambe said in Bhosari, youths often roamed freely with sickles and swords.

The locked police chowky at Nehrunagar-Vithalnagar.

In the last four years, Pimpri-Chinchwad has seen at least 50 incidents of two-wheelers and four-wheelers being vandalised. Police suspect that those behind such acts are youths in the age group of 15-20, who are trying to create terror and assert their supremacy in the area. Weapons such as sickles and swords are used freely by these youngsters, said police.

Kharalwadi, Mohannagar, Rahatni, Thergaon, Nehrunagar, Vithalnagar and Wakad are among the suburbs that have been most affected by these incidents. The latest incident took place on Tuesday evening, in the Nehrunagar-Vithalnagar area, which has seen several clashes among gangs, which have been involved in a turf war.

Police suspect that these goons either owe allegiance to a local gangster or a politician. The murder of RTI activist Suhas Haldankar last year in Kharalwadi was allegedly committed by youths owing allegiance to a top gangster.
According to local residents, there is hardly any police presence in Nehrunagar-Vithalnagar area, especially in the evening.

“Most of the youngsters can be found loitering or getting involved in arguments or even drinking in public. They not only create a nuisance, but succeed in creating terror in the minds of the people, who are scared of going out in the evening. The police should ensure that these youths are not given the freedom to act as they please,” said local corporator Geeta Mancharkar, who herself was brutally attacked by a gang two years ago.

A senior police official said when the detained youths are produced before the courts, the latter often adopt a lenient approach and release them. A few years ago, the police had set up a chowky to monitor the Nehrunagar-Vithalnagar area. But only a few days after the inauguration, the police chowky was locked up, said Mancharkar, adding that the such a chowky with adequate staff should be immediately set up.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 3), Ganesh Shinde, said they have arrested the culprits involved in three such incidents this year. “Youths in the age group of 15-20 are indulging in such acts. The Act prevents us from arresting juveniles, but they are taking advantage of the situation…,” he said. Shinde said while the police chowky in Nehrunagar-Vithalnagar has been closed, a new one would be set up in the area.

Some of the youths were found to be brazenly using sickles and swords, he said. Police are now planning to issue a directive to those who own such weapons and ask them to deposit the sickles and swords with the nearest police station. “We want to curb the blatant use of sharp weapons by youngsters,” he said.

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Advocate Sachin Godambe said in Bhosari, youths often roamed freely with sickles and swords. “Every week, there are four or five incidents were gangs have attacked each other with sharp weapons. Police should act tough by ensuring that such sharp weapons are not available easily. The vendors of such sharp weapons should be asked to stop their business, which should be declared illegal.”

Godambe said every sickle or sword should be registered with the nearest police station. “The owner should give it in writing that he would not allow its misuse, or specify the purpose for which he needed to keep the sharp weapon,” he said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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