Underworld casts shadow on State

The hype surrounding activity of big time underworld dons from Mumbai in the State may not be just hot air. According to recent police reports, Gujarat is once again becoming "favourable ground" for underworld.

One case in point being the firing on city businessman Jayant Patel, who was threatened with dire consequences by the Fazlur Rehman gang if he failed to meet the gang’s extortion demands.

The arrest of more than 10 gangsters-for their involvement with gangsters like Fazlur Rehman and Abu Salem - in the last six months shows that the State is being chosen as a soft target by the ganglords. "The sad part is if they are arrested then they only identify them as big ganglords otherwise brand them as taporis or sidekicks working for Fazlur Rehman or Abu Salem."

According to the police, the two miscreants who fired on Jayant Patel could be henchmen of Fazlur Rehman. But reports with the State Intelligence branch are more alarming. "Criminals working for organised gangs are being driven out from mumbai and they are targetting Gujarat for their operations."

The reason why the gangsters are shifting is that the Maharashtra Police has began a crackdown on gangsters, "which is why they have shifted bases here," a top official said. "We have found signs of their activities mainly in Surat but slowly they are trying to take over Ahmedabad also, which is a matter of concern," he added, requesting anonymity.

In February, two assailants opened fire at Paldi on a city painter, who is also elder brother of Dubai-based narcotics dealer Vicky Goswami. Though the attack failed, investigations revealed that the assailants belonged to Abu Salem gang. "These two criminals came from Mumbai to kill Vicky but mistakenly opened fire on his brother," said a senior city police official. "However, things are not always of that gravity as some small-time taporis also try to exploit the names of Abu, Fazlur or even Dawood to earn some fast money. We do not think that big gangsters are operating in the State except in some stray cases," said a senior official of the city Crime Branch.

Joint Commissioner of Crime Branch, S.K. Saikia says: "In some cases it is small time gangsters who work for fast bucks in the name of big gangsters but in some cases we did find involvement of big time gangsters, though the situation is not that serious."

In addition, all telegram facilities, telex, fax, billing and even Internet services were affected because of the strike.

All India Telegraph Traffic Ministerial Union circle president J.B.Kumpawat said though the union leaders have begun the first round of talks with Ministers in Delhi on Friday night, the strike would continue until all the demands were acceded to.

Ahmedabad Telecom General Manager P.K. Chanda said the strike had "marginally" affected services in the district, but there were indications that the strike could be called off.

Republished from Indian Express