Absconding criminals, beware! Punjab Police have resurrected their drive to nab the more than 14,000 criminals, including former militants and NRIs
CHANDIGARH: Absconding criminals, beware! Punjab Police have resurrected their drive to nab the more than 14,000 criminals, including former militants and NRIs, who have been on the run in the past few years.
Assessing the number of criminals who had been absconding for quite some time, Punjab Police DGP NPS Aulakh, at a recent crime-review meeting, indicated that a crackdown to nab absconding criminals will soon be launched. An officer at the DIG-level would be monitoring the month-long campaign in the state. After tracking the criminals’ possible hideouts, Punjab Police would co-ordinate with their counterparts in neighbouring states, and nab them.
Ironically, a similar exercise was undertaken two years ago, but was abandoned after the then DIG in-charge, got transferred.
The Punjab Police also believe that arresting absconding criminals would lead them to resolving many criminal cases, which have been lying unresolved for years.
According to police sources, more than 100 absconders, whose records have been gathering dust on shelves at police stations, are apparently involved in acts of terror. So far, there has been no progress in the investigation of these cases.
According to highly-placed police sources, the largest number of absconders — estimated to be around 4,000 — hail from Jalandhar district. At least 117 NRIs feature in this list of 4,000 criminals.
However, investigations in such criminal cases pertaining to NRIs have reached a dead end as the criminal would commit the crime and flee from the country before the police could get a whiff of them. And by the police zeroed in on the involved NRI, it was near to impossible to get them back. Absconding NRIs find their safe haven in countries like the UK and Canada, say police sources adding that the notorious ones are allegedly involved in sponsoring murders and swindling people.
Among other crime-prone districts in Punjab, feature Ludhiana and Amritsar. Ludhiana, where the crime rate is high, had recorded merely 900-odd offenders, while Amritsar has listed around 1,300 absconding criminals.
The Punjab Police has a two-phased plan to nab the absconding criminals.
In the first phase, police action would be focused on absconding criminals within the state. In each district, a police team had been entrusted with the task of identifying and nabbing the criminals after procuring their fresh arrest warrants from courts, said sources.
In the second phase, the 3,000 criminals from outside the state mainly from Bihar, UP, Delhi and Haryana would then be targeted.
In order to make the exercise more focused, police officers would be asked to prepare a progress report on their cases every fortnight.
b_ajay@dnaindia.net
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