LUCKNOW: January 21: Surrounded by scores of relatives, Ramsiya just mumbles one name — Abhishek — and starts howling inconsolably until she passes out. Her husband, village head Harishankar Yadav, is sitting at a distance along with other villagers and watching helplessly. The couple is shattered at losing their only son to the bullets of a gang of seven dacoits who struck their village, Katauli in Kakroi tehsil on the outskirts of Lucknow.
January 21: Perhaps the same gang strikes at the house of Jagatpal in the adjoining village of Baniyakheda the same night. Before decamping with cash and jewellery worth lakhs, the dacoits shoot at four persons including Jagatpal’s son Ankit, father Raghunath and neighbours Devendra and Shaloo, who all are battling for life in hospital. The gang also targets former village head Indrapal’s house and that of his neighbour Ramashankar. In the indiscriminate firing by the dacoits, Ramshankar is injured. Next, it’s Kailash’s turn to bear the brunt.
Janaury 23: Just 48 hours later, a gang of over a dozen masked men brandishing guns, iron rods and crowbars strike at four houses in two villages — Sarawan and Munshiganj — in Malihabad on Lucknow outskirts. During four dacoities committed in a span of one hour, the dacoits kill Shyamu Rawat, son of Parmeshwar Rawat, former village head of Sarawan, and injure several others. They loot cash and jewellery worth `15 lakh from the two villages.
These are not stories from the badlands of Chambal of 1980s. These incidents have taken place this year as dacoits are having a free run on the outskirts of Lucknow.
Cocking a snook at the district police, they targeted over a dozen houses, killing three persons, injuring 11 and looting ornaments and cash worth lakhs. Not a single arrest had been made till the filing of this report.
As the Opposition sharpened its attack on the government, with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav comparing Lucknow with Chambal in “Yogi raj”, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took the police brass to task and asked them to solve the dacoities on priority basis.
He summoned top police and administration officials, including principal secretary (home) Arvind Kumar and ADG (law and order) Anand Kumar to express his displeasure over the spurt in crimes. (DATE)
He also pointed to the case of PCR refusing to help two youths injured in a road mishap, leaving them to die. According to highly placed sources, Yogi warned police officers of stern action if immediate measures were not taken to arrest the dacoits and improve law and order.
The police’s failure to nab the dacoits so far and the soaring crime graph in the state is particularly glaring as they have been given a free hand to kill criminals in encounters.
When the Malihabad dacoities took place, a team of district police was camping just two km away from the site. The team was, in fact, deployed in view of back-to-back dacoities, and was out in the field to monitor night patrolling.
Abhay Prasad, ADG, Lucknow Zone, said when he got information about Munshiganj and Sarawan dacoities, he was camping in Malihabad. Butt by the time his team reached the spot, the gang had escaped. Despite intense combing of the area for hours, the police failed to get even a trace of the men.
The series of dacoities started with Chinhat area on January 18. The criminals targeted three houses in a locality past midnight and shot three persons.
This was followed by a dacoity in Naka in the heart of state capital on January 20. Dacoits killed a woman before making way with the booty. Deepak Kumar, SSP, Lucknow, said the crime was a handiwork of gangs from Etah or nomadic gangs.
Dacoits have a free run
January 18
A gang of dacoits strikes three houses in Chinhat, shoots three persons and injures one with iron rod.
January 20
Dacoits target a house, kill a woman and decamp with booty.
January 21
Half-a-dozen dacoits strike a number of houses in Kakori; gram pradhan’s son shot dead; 4 others injured.
January 23
Gang of over a dozen men carry out four back-to-back dacoities within one hour in two villages of Malihabad, kill one person, injure several others and decamp with ornaments and cash worth Rs 15 lakh.