Indore : ‘Crime Watch’, a service launched by the City police a fortnight ago to curb crimes with the help of citizens, has helped the police bust gamblers and betting gangs the most. Although number of other crimes is negligible, the number of gamblers and betters nabbed are encouraging.
It may be recalled that the City police had launched the “Crime Watch’ service with much fanfare. Three numbers are provided with one for mobile calling, one for WhatsApp and one landline number for public to inform on crimes. The name and number of callers are kept anonymous.
An MIS system is in place which gives information on number of calls received, number of calls proved correct or a hoax, number and types of crimes intervened and number of arrest made etc. The calls include calls received from fraudsters by the citizens on their mobile phones.
In its second week of existence, the service received 230 calls, more than double the calls received in the first week of launch. The calls related to gambling, betting, sale of narcotics, traffic violations, ATM password hacking, loafing and disturbance etc. The service also received calls relating to disturbing peace and harmony, uploading morphed pictures with intent malign names, prostitution rackets, mobile phone harassment, property disputes and landlord-tenant disputes etc.
Though the service was launched in the city as pilot project, calls were received from Gwalior, Ujjain, Neemuch, Dhamnod and even from Mathura in UP.
Some of the notable calls acted upon are a call by a youth who was duped of Rs 25000 on the promise of job by Seven Seas Airport and Port Management Services India Company Limited. Acting on the information, Bhawarkuwa police nabbed the staff of the company while were recruiting in the city again and probably prevented a large scale fraud.
Besides the above, the police also nabbed a man who was refilling gas cylinders in a residential colony putting everyone in danger, WhatsApp groups that were trying to disturb peace and harmony of the city and more recently four of the eight youths who had tried to turn a peaceful protest into violent riots and arrest of more than two dozen person engaged in gabling in a communally sensitive area.
