Last week in the midst of the Pahalgam crisis, a very important news got lost in the inside pages of the newspapers. In a status report filed before the Supreme Court, the centre through the Additional Solicitor General submitted that 95 organised gangs were active in Delhi.
The report said that “a total of 95 organised criminal gangs have been identified, comprising an aggregate of 1,109 members, all of whom are presently undergoing trial proceedings.” The submission was in the context of the delayed trial of the criminal cases.
The Supreme Court had taken grasp of the matter last year saying that hardened criminals commit crimes while out on bail — often granted on the ground of delay in trial.
The SC’s observation had come while dealing with a bail plea by gangster Mahesh Khatri alias Bholi. The Centre has assured the apex court a proposal has been moved and was under active consideration to set up these special courts to deal with these criminal gangs.
While the discussion was limited to the delay in the trial, the report nevertheless also put focus on the fact that Delhi has become a centre of organised crime. According to the report mentioned above, hardened criminal Jitender Gogi’s gang’s 153 members were facing trial in 553 cases and ‘internationally acclaimed’ Lawrence Bishnoi gang’s 73 members were facing trial in 594 cases.
This is not a small crime figure for a city, and there is need to introspect rather investigate how come such a large number of criminal gangs are operating in Delhi with immunity. As per the report, Hashim Baba’s 53 gang members were facing trial 402 cases, similarly Kala Jathedi gang’s 55 members have been booked in 344 cases. The list has other big names like Tillu gang’s 50 members in 129 cases, Himanshu Bhau gang, Kapil Sangwan gang, Salman Tyagi gang and Saddam Gauri’s gang.
The length of this list is no shorter than the dacoit gangs operating across the three states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in the ravines of the Chambal river. While these dacoit gangs were spread over a large geographical expanse, in the present case, Delhi, with a length of 52 kilometres and breadth of 48 kilometres, is under the shadow of 95 organised gangs.
The revelation is all the more surprising as Delhi Police is largely know to have in the past dealt with organised crime as well as terrorism with an iron hand. Trigger happy cops of Delhi police were known to have dismantled several gangs in the past which operated from the hinterland of the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
Similarly the crack cops belonging to the Special Cell became legends in their lifetime destroying international terror modules. They enjoyed the reputation of being the finest of the anti-terror team. However, the legendary status of these units have with time been forgotten as in the recent times one doesn’t recall them carrying out any operation which made headlines in the newspapers.
This despite the fact that the overriding the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA), legislated to combat issues relating to organized crime and terrorism within the state, has also been under application Delhi since January 2002. With such legislative super power in their control, it indeed is matter of investigation as to how so many gangs have come to operate in the national Capital.
On the first read, several socio-economic factors like poverty and unemployment, urbanisation and migration, income inequality, corruption and weak governance, lack of education, social dislocation and high demand for illegal goods and services can be said to be contributing to organised crime. But then these factors were always there but still there was a high tide time of Delhi Police when it controlled crime spiral.
In the past, whenever the city faced crime spiral, heads rolled. The same doesn’t seem to be happening now. Cops have been killed by trigger happy gangsters, 40-rounds of bullets have been fired and woman gang raped in the heart of the city to name a few heinous crime, but no reprimand to those responsible for crime control.
The Centre would have to review its crime control policy for the national Capital. Delayed trials could not be the only reason for crime in the city touching helix levels.
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice