Indore : The recent surrender by notorious contract killer Shakir Chacha in a Nagda Court seems to have laid bare the inapt intelligence gathering network adopted by the police nowadays. Despite strong possibility of his surrender in the court, police failed to get wind of the same.
Shakir Chacha’s name had surfaced in the broad daylight shoot out of another hardened criminal, Jitu Yadav alias Baba, in Annapurna area in the afternoon of February 24.
Yadav was the main conspirator behind eliminating Congress leader Santosh Dubey on May 28 in 2009, through his henchmen Pintu Thakur and Alpesh Chauhan over payment of a prime land.
It was not the first time that any hardcore criminal surrendered before police or court by avoiding the city police; as in almost all the sensational and broad daylight murders.
The previous lists include name of Pappu Dakait and Satish Bhau, accused of Vishnu Ustad Murder case on February 12 in 2003, as the above criminals had surrendered in Gwalior Court.
Yuvraj Kashid, son of slain criminal Vishnu Ustad had avenged his father’s murder by shooting main conspirator Jitu Thakur in Mhow sub-jail on June 23 in 2007. But police could not trace him and Yuvraj surrendered in Tukoganj police station. Police also failed to arrest goons Pintu Thakur and Alpesh Chauhan, who had shot congress leader Santosh Dubey dead inside a gym while they surrendered in Gujarat.
Despite many failures, city police instead of focusing on local intelligence gathering, only remained busy in CDR analysis to track the criminals.
Further, whenever there is a spurt of crimes in the city, police launch drives in the name of arresting goons while most of the criminals arrested during such drives are those who have either shun crimes or petty criminals involved in low profile offences. A senior police official claimed wishing anonymity that lack of proper coordination among the different wings of the local police often result in failure to trace the hardcore criminals who surrender in courts or police stations.
However, after Manoj Nitra’s surrender in court last week, DIG Rakesh Gupta had claimed that police can seek remand of such criminals for interrogation, if the need arises.
How police have an upper hand in arresting goons?
Police have an upper hand if they manage to arrest the accused goons prior to their surrender. The arrest not only boosts the morale of the force, but helps during interrogation process to extract real motive behind the heinous crimes and involvement of white-collared people behind the curtains. Surrender provides enough time to criminals to tamper with the facts. If police arrest the accused, they can get a firsthand account of the crime and crime scene. The word around is that the goons, in major cases, avoid police arrest fearing physical torture and by greasing of palms at different levels. In high profile criminal cases, the fear of encounter among criminals is also a reason.
