E-Paper
Among UP Police’s new challenges in Prayagraj are ‘gangs’ run by school students
10 teenagers, students of classes 9 to 12 at Prayagraj’s an 18-year-old, on charges of setting off small explosions using crude bombs in parts of the city over the past few weeks and months
PRAYAGRAJ: The Prayagraj Police has set up a special team to identify members of new groups that have surfaced on and off social media, many of them comprising school students, who have fought for supremacy on the city’s streets, police officers said after the arrest of 10 juveniles, said to be members of one such gang that called itself, ‘Immortal’.
The 10 teenagers, students of classes 9 to 12 at the city’s well-known schools, were arrested along with one youth, an 18-year-old, on charges of setting off small explosions using crude bombs in parts of Prayagraj over the past few weeks and months. “Many of them are sons of lawyers, government employees, teachers, contractors and businessmen,” said a police officer who is part of the district’s special team.
Now, the police are trying to identify and arrest members of rival groups that are still active and take them down. There is one group that calls itself ‘Tandav’, another calls itself ‘Maya’, a third ‘Ramdal’ and a fourth, ‘Jaguar’.
Half of the 35 people arrested by the Prayagraj Police during the past month for the crude bomb explosions are minors.
Police teams are collecting details about members of these groups and their social media accounts - some of them did post photos, videos or claims of their exploits - are being scanned to establish the identity of the group members.
Investigators are also reaching out to school authorities to identify unruly and violent students who may be a member of the so-called gangs, a second police officer said. In some cases, school officials told the police that they suspend students suspected to be involved in suspicious activities but it hadn’t helped bring them back on track.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Prayagraj Shailesh Kumar Pandey said they will write to school managements to counsel students.
“They will be urged to counsel students and ensure that they are not involved in any illegal activities. Students should be encouraged to make positive use of the Internet,” he said, suggesting that the police didn’t want to take very harsh action against the youngsters.
But stringent provisions such as the National Security Act may be invoked against those aged 18 and above who have a criminal record, he said.
Police officers said the families of the juveniles did not have a clue what their wards were up to and initially accused the police of framing the children in false cases. But they backed down when shown some evidence of the crime.
Cases against juveniles
SSP Shailesh Pandey said crude bombs were exploded on May 22 at the gate of Bishop Johnson School, bombs were hurled at some persons near Bade Hanuman Temple on July 4. On July 15 and July 16, crude bombs went off at Maharishi Patanjali and Ganga Rishikulam schools and a crude bomb was hurled at the main gate of Boys High School on July 22. On July 25, three teenagers on a scooty threw a crude bomb near the main gate of Bishop Johnson school on July 25.
Sudhanshu Mishra, the only one of the 11 to be over 18 years, has completed his intermediate this year and was sent to Naini central Jail, SSP Prayagraj said.
Police officers said the arrested juveniles said the incidents of crude bomb attacks were a fall out of rivalries between students of Boys High School (BHS) and Bishop Johnson School who formed groups named ‘Immortal’ and ‘Tandav’ on social media platforms.
First, a group of students of BHS and Bishop Johnson School formed a group named ‘Jaguar’ whose members used to extort money from other students and beat them up. To counter the group, some students formed ‘Immortal’ group which is believed to have 40 members and has uploaded live videos of crude bomb attacks and clashes on Instagram and other social media.
