The empty and decrepit police posts lying along the NH-8, the arterial road that connects Mumbai to Ahmedabad is a stark reminder of the dangers of travelling.
After the recent dacoity on the busy Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, police patrolling is on, but locals want long-term measures, reports Neeta Kolhatkar
MUMBAI: The empty and decrepit police posts lying along the NH-8, the arterial road that connects Mumbai to Ahmedabad is a stark reminder of the dangers of travelling. A major route for thousands of goods-laden trucks is now a haven for dacoits, who attack cars and rob passengers.
Local officials claim that had the unmanned police chowkies been equipped, the dacoities could have been avoided. “These could have been used by police for patrolling which does have some impact,” says a local police officer.
Though the December 8 midnight attack on a convoy of cars was unusual, because rarely had so many vehicles been targeted at once, the more experienced truck drivers say such dacoities are a common occurrence. In fact most truck drivers feel pressurised once they leave the Gujarat border and enter Maharashtra, as this area has a thick jungle on both sides. These are trucks that collectively carry goods worth crores of rupees headed for the Maharashtra and Gujarat markets.
“Every five days or so I come on this road and it is scary at night. There is no light on the highway and we do not see the police till we reach Virar,” says Doomba Ram, a driver from Jodhpur.
Manohar Singh, a 40-year-old truck driver from Jodhpur is thankful that he missed the highway dacoity last week by a few minutes. He had just left the Parol stretch, where the dacoity took place and had reached the Maharashtra-Gujarat border when armed dacoits struck and went on a looting spree for 30 minutes with no worries about being intercepted by the police.
The dacoits have many tactics to slow down vehicles. Throwing stones and mud at the windshield of a passing truck to slow down the vehicle and laying nails on the road to punctures the tyres — are some commonly used tactics. “Drivers have no option but to stop their vehicles. This also compels other vehicles behind to stop on the road, which helps the looters,” says a police officer. Naval Bajaj, the Superintendent of Police says, “The gang, suspected to comprise a group of nomadic criminals, was earlier active in Gujarat.”
Besides these, the dacoits also use women, who stand by the roadside and tempt truck drivers. “I have been driving on this road the last 10 years. I do see women asking for lifts, but I don’t trust them,” says Atmaram Kakude, a Goregaon-resident and truck driver.
The area’s emergency infrastructure, too, is poor. Lighting is non-functional even at long stretches while the signboards displaying emergency numbers are not visible. Many claim to have never used these numbers. When the reporter called the emergency mobile number, 09860126767, a constable attended to the call and confirmed that no complainant had made the call on the night of the loot.
Following the latest case of dacoity, the police presence has been increased, but regulars fear this will again disappear once the heat is off. For the moment, the cops are eagerly looking out for the criminals who decamped with Rs3.25 lakh from the passengers after looting 15 vehicles.
k_neeta@dnaindia.net
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