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Maharashtra announces crackdown on criminals

The state government today directed the city police to crack down on criminals, ferret them out from their hideouts to remove fears spawned by shootouts and extortion cases in the metropolis.

Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, who admitted today for the first time that the law and order situation in the city was serious, said the government had noted that gang wars were spilling out on to the streets. Yesterday, an alleged gangster was shot dead at Bandra station. Two commuters were also injured in the process.

Munde, who is also in charge of home portfolio, announced a series of measures to combat increasing crime. One of them involved setting up a separate railway police commissionerate following incidents like yesterday's shootout, stone-throwing, robberies and cases of mugging. Recently a college girl, Jaybala Ashar, lost both her legs after being robbed and pushed out of a train.

Munde, Minister of State for Home Gajanan Kirtikar and Minister of State for Railways Ram Naik held a long meeting senior railway and police officials in this regard. Munde also discussed the situation with Director General of Police Arvind Inamdar and city Police Commissioner R H Mendonca.

At the meeting, Munde directed the police commissioner to initiate a sustained drive against criminals, conducting surprise raids on their hideouts and putting up checkpoints to nab criminals. He also called for an effective drive against illegal weapons and asked them to use the "bullet for bullet" method while dealing with those involved in gang wars.

Munde said the state government has also already finalised the draft of an ordinance -- the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime -- and sent it to the governor for promulgating it at the earliest. The proposed ordinance provides for a minimum three years imprisonment, which could be extended up to life imprisonment or the death sentence.

Munde promised that innocent people would not face unfair detention, assuring them that the proposed legislation would target only organised crimes like extortion and extremist activities by naxalites. Unlike the now defunct Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, this ordinance was not a detention act. Under its provision, the police was required to produced the accused in court within 24 hrs of the arrest and file a chargesheet within 90 days.

Deterrent provisions include the attachment of the property of absconding criminals within 90 days and minimum three years imprisonment for extorting money.

Asked whether a major reshuffle in the police set-up was on the cards, Munde said he had asked the Inamdar and the police commissioners of Bombay, Thane and Pune to submit reports on the functioning of police personnel.

He hinted at a reshuffle in the police brass, but quickly added that a decision would be taken only after assessing the reports. He refused to comment on individual transfers, including that of Mendoca. Chief Minister Manohar Joshi yesterday had said it was time to demand results of the police. But Munde said the chief minister had not discussed a reshuffle in the police when they met.

Mendonca said the morale of the police was high and that several measures had been taken to check the spurt in criminal activities. About 333 firearms, including foreign-made weapons, had been seized and many criminals had been detained and arrested. In October itself, seven gangsters had been killed in encounters, he said.

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