E-Paper
Crude bomb explosions case: Police probing criminals’ ties to student gangs
Gang members kept in touch via social media and would skip classes to meet at a particular location to plan and carry out their criminal acts
After arresting 11 school students, including 10 minors, in connection with a series of crude bomb explosions that occurred in Sangam city during the past three months, police teams have begun scanning their connections with known criminals.
Investigations have revealed that some of the arrested students were in contact with known criminals.
Police officials said scanning of the mobile phones of some of the arrested students revealed that they were in contact with a few persons with a criminal record. Some students were close to Ayush Shukla, an accused wanted in connection with the crude bomb attack near Bade Hanuman Mandir in Daraganj on July 4, and another criminal, Vishal Chauhan, lodged in Naini Central jail.
Police added around 11 more youths are also on their radar. They were members of the student gang and are also suspected to be involved in the incidents of crude bomb explosions around the city.
We are keeping a close watch, and efforts are on to arrest them, police added.
There is a possibility that the criminal gangs were patronising these minor students for their own motives, officials said.
It is worth mentioning that school students aged between 14 and 18 years used to bunk classes after receiving messages on their social media groups.
They used to assemble near Dhobi Ghat Crossing and other places to plan crude bomb explosions to display their strength and supremacy over their rival groups. Some of the student gangs identified are ‘Immortal’, ‘Tandav’, ‘Jaguar’, ‘Maya’, ‘Ramdal’ and ‘Bichhu’. “We are now collecting details about other similar gangs and their members. Each of the gangs identified so far had students from some of the reputed schools in the city,” police added.
Police investigations have also revealed a minor student of a convent school was the leader of the ‘Immortal’ group. The selection of the leader was done through a lottery system. The youth was expert in making crude bombs, which made loud noises but did not pose any serious threat.
After questioning the arrested youths, police said initial investigations suggest that the crude bomb explosions were a fallout of rivalries between students of Boys High School (BHS) and Bishop Johnson School (BJS), who had formed groups named ‘Immortal’ and ‘Tandav’ on social media platforms. First, a group of students from BHS and Bishop Johnson 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 the ‘Immortal’ group, which has 40 members. They used the Instagram app to send messages to assemble. They used to upload live videos of crude bomb attacks and clashes on Instagram and other social media sites for displaying supremacy. Members of the group also organised events and sold IDs of the PUBG game online to earn money. Similarly, the group ‘Tandav’ was active for more than a year and had 100 members involved in clashes and crude bomb blasts.
Police said eleven students arrested so far, including ten minors, have been lodged at a juvenile home in Khuldabad. Some of the students, belonging to high-profile and well-off families, are finding it difficult to adapt to the rules of the juvenile home and are regretting their actions.
These youths lodged with other minor offenders are only allowed to meet their parents once a day, informed an official, on condition of anonymity.
The students were produced before the juvenile justice board, and their documents have been submitted by their parents which will now be studied to establish if they were minors.
SP city Dinesh Kumar Singh said security outside schools will be enhanced to avoid any such incidents in future.
“We are taking the help of parents and school authorities to counsel students to stay away from bad elements and concentrate on their studies,” he added.
