E-Paper
City turns a haven for dacoits
While Naxalites operating in Chandauli, Sonebhadra and Mirzapur regions have started making forays into Varanasi due to its proximity to these districts, dreaded dacoit gangs operating in Banda-Chitrakoot regions have found Allahabad a safe haven for carrying out their nefarious activities including extortion and kidnapping for ransom.
‘Silent’ kidnapping a new way to extort money
While Naxalites operating in Chandauli, Sonebhadra and Mirzapur regions have started making forays into Varanasi due to its proximity to these districts, dreaded dacoit gangs operating in Banda-Chitrakoot regions have found Allahabad a safe haven for carrying out their nefarious activities including extortion and kidnapping for ransom.
Believe it or not a number of kidnappings in the recent past were reportedly carried out by these dacoit gangs in this district.
But none of them came to the knowledge of police because the victim's family preferred to pay the ransom quietly. So secret were the operations--exchange of money and release of the 'catch'--that even the media could not get a wind of it.
A police officer on condition of anonymity admitted, that these dacoit gangs were carrying out their operation in their own ways.
They were not kidnapping the targetted person on their own but through the middleman. These middlemen were educated youngmen hailing either from Banda or from Chitrakoot.
These middlemen were being tapped by the gangs to befriend such persons whose families were in a position to pay hefty ransom.
Thus without any hue and cry victims are taken by the middleman to a pre-arranged place and the job is done. In return the middleman is paid some money by the gang.
Though cops could not exactly tell the number of such kidnappings but they accept that some such kidnappings have been carried out in the city in the recent past.
However, one such kidnapping which came to light was that of a lecturer's son.
The ECC lecturer had come to know many days after his son's disappearance that he had been kidnapped by a Chitrakoot dacoit gang through a middleman.
Police , however, claimed that they managed to get the boy freed from the clutches of the gang in a jungle without ransom.
In a latest incident Pramod Kumar, lecturer of an engineering college in Banda is reported to have disappeared from Allahabad. Resident of Kushinagar near Gorakhpur he is reported to have told his wife on mobile on August 13 that he had reached Allahabad city in the morning and would reach Kushinagar in the evening. However, the youngman has neither reached Kushinagar nor has reported back to the college. His father-in-law who came from Kushinagar on Thursday has expressed fear that he might have been kidnapped.
Only the other day, STF gunned down Rajkaran aka Chachchu real uncle of Thokia gang leader Ambika Patel who operates in Banda-Chitrakoot belt.
The encounter took place in the city near Polytechnic. STF sleuths were in for surprise after they discovered four hand grenades, a binocular and a 9 mm pistol in a bag which the killed dacoit was carrying.
Sources said, he was here not only to purchase arms and ammunitions through his contacts for the gang but also to arrange some kidnappings.
However, the STF got a wind of his presence and he was eliminated.
A police officer remarked, ''till now the city was a safe heaven for the mafia and shooters hailing from Purvanchal but of late the city has become a good hunting ground for the dacoit gangs of Banda- Chitrakoot including some other districts on UP-MP border''.
