Cops launch operation to arrest dacoities

Taking serious note of the spate of dacoities, the State CID headquarters held several meetings during the last two days where Singh urged top police officials posted in various city units and the district to step up security and to improve the internal communication.

The meetings were attended by Deputy inspector general of police (Kolhapur Range) Raj Khilnani, Superintendent of police (State CID, Crime) Karl D’Souza, Superintendent of police (Railway) Ankush Dhanvijay, Superintendent of police (Pune Rural) Ashok Dhivre and Deputy superintendent of police (State Traffic) A S Shaikh.

Besides, directing the State Traffic Police to reactivate check posts on the highways, Singh also directed the Railway Police to intensify patrolling at railway stations and check passengers boarding various trains. These measures are expected to help track down dacoit gangs during transit.

The State CID Crime, which maintains a computerised database of dacoities and robberies reported from various parts of the State and the habitual criminals involved in such crimes, has been ordered to provide the necessary information to the agencies involved.

The agencies involved in implementation of the plan in Pune city and district have also been asked to seek cooperation from police units elsewhere in the State if required.

The Pune city and district police have been asked to step up security in the crime infested areas and to intensify searches for history-sheeters involved in similar crimes.

While ordering the top brass of the agencies to hold periodical meetings for better communication with each other on the implementation of the scheme, Singh said he himself would conduct meetings of senior officials to supervise their functioning from time to time.

The scheme is likely to be introduced in Ahmednagar, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Beed, Jalgaon, Jalna, Dhule and Aurangabad districts.

It may be mentioned that Singh had prepared a special plan to tackle with the rise in highway robberies in the last year. The number of highway robberies has considerably come down in Pune district ever since the implementation of the plan started, about six months back.

Dacoities on the risePune, the cultural capital of the State, considered a serene pensioners’ paradise, seems to have been held to ransom by dacoits and robbers since the beginning of this year.

During the last three months, a total of three dacoities and 20 robberies have been reported from various parts of the city. While none of these dacoities have yet been solved, the police have succeeded in detecting only 50 percent of the robberies.

One of the three dacoities had taken place at Katraj in January this year. The other two dacoities, one reported from Chinchwad and the other from Hadapsar, took place within the last one week. A woman was murdered and 11 seriously hurt in these recent dacoities.

Explaining the little success in solving the dacoities, the top police officials said nailing the culprits was difficult as such crimes were usually committed by members of nomadic tribes.

They said it has been observed that most of the dacoities and robberies had taken place during the summer over the last many years as the culprits were mostly landless labourers who faced unemployment during the season.

People’s tendency to sleep outside houses and to leave doors and windows open during summer, to find respite from the heat was also emerging as a major factor resulting in rise in the number of dacoities and robberies during the summer, they added.