Highway crime: Shaken police now hit the road

Rattled by the spate of robberies on the expressway, the Maharashtra police have now planned a series of measures and taken up the challenge...

Rattled by the spate of robberies on the expressway, the Maharashtra police have now planned a series of measures and taken up the challenge to prevent any such incident in the future.

A high-level meeting of police officials was convened on Saturday at Khandala by the Special Inspector-General of Police (Kolhapur range), Ramarao Pawar, under whose jurisdiction the expressway falls.

The discussion revolved around various steps to prevent the robberies and to reassure people that going by the expressway at night is safe. The district police and the highway police will now be undertaking joint patrolling of the expressway. Additional manpower and more vehicles are to be given for intensified patrolling.

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The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has now allotted four Tata Sumos to the police, two of which will be with the Thane superintendent of police, while two will be with the Khandala and the Wadgaon police for patrolling.

The state police is also considering the possibility of having mobile police aid posts to be positioned at various sites every alternate day, officials said.

In any incident of robbery, the highway police will now be taking down the complaint and forwarding it to the concerned police station. Policemen patrolling on motorbikes on the expressway will now be armed with rifles, and will be given walkie-talkie sets to contact the nearest police station. Between Kivale and Khandala, the exstretch has been divided into six stretches for patrolling.