Jaipur: Alwar district, the gateway to Rajasthan from Delhi and Haryana, is now called “the crime district of Rajasthan”. In the past two years Alwar has witnessed a very high rate of crime including murders and mob lynching and recently a gangster from Haryana, Vikram Gujjar alias Papla was freed from the police lock-up by his friends who fired at the police station.
The law and order in Alwar district is so bad that the state government with a view to curb the crime appointed a second superintendent of police for the district. Alwar is the only district in the state with two superintendents of police ( SPs).
The 28-year-old Papla was broken out of Behror police station some weeks back, and still remains at large. However, police have managed to nab some of his associates and paraded them in a semi-clothed state on Sunday.
The arrested accused were handcuffed and paraded with just with a short and banian and they were made to walk barefoot. Papla is wanted by both Haryana and the Rajasthan police on charges of 21 various crimes.
The Haryana police have announced an award of Rs five lakh on his head. He is involved in killings, murders, looting and extortions.
The police have launched a massive manhunt for Papla, but it has failed to nab him. He is hiding in Haryana, but because of the lack of support from the Haryana police, the Rajasthan police has not been able to arrest him.
This move by the police could be seen as a result of sheer frustration as Papla is playing cat-and-mouse-game with the police and even putting up social media posts mocking the law and order situation.
The associates of Vikram Gurjar, who had rewards on them, had been nabbed in a joint operation involving the Special Operations Group. They were allegedly involved in helping Papla flee the Behror police station.
Heavily escorted by personnel of Alwar police, SOG team, Rajasthan Armed Constabulary (RAC), they were paraded in a semi-clothed state for around 2 kilometres. SP Amandeep Singh Kapoor himself led the procession.
The parade of the goons, from Behror school ground to the Behror police station by the district police was termed as identification parade.
The Special Operations Group of Rajasthan police has so far arrested 16 people in the infamous Behror police station incident. “In this case, the identification parade was carried out today by police and investigating agency SOG,” Amandeep Kapoor, Bhiwadi Superintendent of Police said.
Earlier, the state police had announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh on the arrest of Vikram Gurjar, main accused in Behror police station case, who continues to evade arrest.
On September 6, armed men had barged into the Behror police station and escaped with Papla. The men who attacked the police station, eyewitnesses said, had come in three vehicles and resorted to indiscriminate firing while entering the premises. Police said around 30 to 40 rounds were fired inside the police station.
According to police, Papla is a hardcore criminal and was lodged in the police station under various charges. Following the incident, two Rajasthan police personnel were dismissed from service, three were suspended and 69 were sent to police lines.
After preliminary investigations in the matter, apart from the dismissal of two head constables from service, one Station House Officer, one head constable and one constable were suspended in the matter. The head constables dismissed from service include Ram Avatar and Vijaypal.
On Sunday, a farmer was beaten by a mob in a village in Alwar as the mob thought he was involved in cow smuggling. Two persons have become the victims of mob lynching in Alwar district.
By Prakash Bhandari
