DHOLPUR (RAJASTHAN): Having more than 100 cases of robbery, kidnapping and looting against him in three states, the dreaded dacoit Jagan Gurjar surrendered in Dholpur district of Rajasthan on Friday.
Forty-nine-year-old Gurjar, who was hiding in the dungeons of Chambal, surrendered at Badi Sadar police station.
Jagan was recently in the news after assaulting and forcing two women to walk naked in a village of Dhaulpur district on June 12th. The video of the incident had gone viral.
Since then, the police of three states were searching for Jagan, and there were also encounters between the two parties. Gurjar carried a reward of Rs 40,000 on his head.
Jagan Gurjar surrendered on Friday at Babu Maharaj temple in Dang area at 7 am in the morning. The police brought him to Sadar police station in Bari, where SP Dholpur Ajay Singh Rathore interrogated him for about four hours. Jagan was arrested with a patchfire gun of the country 315 bore and six cartridges were recovered from him.
Rathore said that when they came to know that Jagan wanted to surrender, they sent two constables, Bhanwar Singh ASI and Santosh Singh, to confirm the news. "When we got information that he was hiding in Mughalpura, we sent our forces in the morning and cordoned off the jungle. We gave him a warning and he surrendered along with his weapons", he said.
After interrogation, the police brought him in front of the media. The journalists questioned him on his harassment of women he denied the charge and said, "Anyone can make that accusation. I am not a coward, I can kill anyone but have not disrespected any woman. These are all lies."
Prior to this, the infamous dacoit has surrendered on three occasions. Previously Jagan had surrendered before the police a year ago and had recently come out of jail.
Jagan Gurjar and his three brothers were confronted by police on June 13th in Dabir village of Dang area. During this time, the police had fired fiercely at the Jagan gang. The gang, however, managed to escape from the spot.
For some days, the Special Task Force had been searching for Jagan.
In a first, Nagaur MP Beniwal had demanded the permission for encounter killing of Jagan Gurjar. This was probably the first time that a dacoit's encounter was asked for in the Lok Sabha.
On the eastern edge of Chambal river, the deserted forests have been infamous for housing the rebels and dacoits. Over 20 years ago, more than 100 dacoits were active in these dungeons. They had huge prize money on them. The situation still hasn't improved much with the dense forest covers still remaining a safe house for these dacoits like Jagan and his companions, Dakayat, who exert their power and rule over the poor and downtrodden classes.