No longer held to ransom

Basudev Yadav, the 70-year-old who 8216;pioneered8217; the kidnapping industry in Bihar, surrendered to the police last week.

Basudev Yadav, the 70-year-old who 8216;pioneered8217; the kidnapping industry in Bihar, surrendered to the police last week. Two weeks earlier, his disciple, crime lord Bhagar Yadav, gave in too.

The surrender of these two criminals coincided with Nitish Kumar8217;s two and a half years in office8212;on May 25, Kumar reached the half way mark. Apart from the sustained police pressure on these ganglords to give up or face the consequences, the talk is that they surrendered in the hope of furthering the political careers of their children. Both Bhagar and Basudev Yadav8217;s sons contested in the assembly elections and lost.

The two ganglords8212;who made abductions a money-spinning proposition in the state8212;surrendered in the backdrop of the state witnessing a marked decline in cases of kidnapping for ransom. Cases of abductions of doctors, engineers and students have come down in Nitish Kumar8217;s Bihar. Government figures show that between January and October 20018212;when the RJD was in power8212;314 cases of kidnapping for ransom were recorded. It came down to 166 during the same period in 2006 and 74 in 2007 after Nitish Kumar took over.

According to the state police, kidnapping for ransom had acquired the form of an industry and fetched the criminal gangs a staggering Rs 250 crore. Investigations had revealed that it was a well-established network with the gangs enjoying political and police patronage. The industry even inspired Bollywood to come out with films like Apaharan that were based on the spate of abductions in the state.

After the change of regime in the state, the police have been under pressure from the top to improve the situation. Speedy trial of pending cases saw hundreds of criminals behind bars. Though the police still have a long way to go before they can put an end to the menace, the drop in such cases is a big relief to traders and professionals and has gone a long way in restoring safety and security.

But at the same time, cases of students like Ankit and Akash who have remained untraced for months after being kidnapped, continue to haunt the political leadership. In both the cases, however, police say there was no demand for ransom and the students might have been kidnapped for other reasons.

Kidnapping for ransom started in Champaran district in the early 80s and Bausdev Yadav was the man who started it. The Indian Penal Code had no provision to deal with kidnappings for ransom while dacoity and murder8212;which the gangs practiced8212;invited stringent punishment. Basudev then started lifting potential preys at gunpoint and hid them in the riverine area he controlled and extracted good money. Slowly, other gangs in the state picked up the idea and several crimelords-turned-elected members used their privileged status to earn huge amounts by kidnapping businessmen, doctors and engineers.