SOG dismantled his team, killed source of finances

For nearly two years since Anandpal’s escape, the state police has been trying to redeem itself of the cardinal sin by nabbing the footloose and armed gangster. For almost a year since he turned fugitive, it was a wild goose chase for the men in khaki who were always “almost there” before Anandpal would turn into a ghost again.

The biggest manhunt

After the gangster fled from police custody, the state police initiated their biggest ever search operation to hunt him down. District police of Ajmer range comprising of Nagaur, Ajmer, Bhilwara and Tonk were kept on high alert. The beaten tracks in the range were tracked every day by cops sniffing for a clue. Every vehicle passing from one district to another was thoroughly examined by the cops. A special team was constituted to look for the man. However, later the matter was handed over to the Special Operations Group (SOG).

The waiting game

The initial strategy of the cops was to track down his aides, arrest them in hope of more bread crumbs leading up to the most wanted man. While, this did give them some strong clues but it never led to his arrest. Nine months later Inspector General of Police Dinesh MN took charge of the SOG. The SOG continued to hunt down his aides but returned empty handed. This led to a widespread belief that Anandpal had a mole in police team. The police did find involvement of men in khaki in his escape and subsequent hiding. These informers were rooted out. The cops then changed their strategy. Instead of directly searching for Anandpal, the cops realised that they had to play the waiting game.

Breaking the network

The police now started their operation to weaken him. The entire chain of command was identified and the cops took out his men on the lowest rung of the chain. “Once they were identified, the team started nabbing the men one by one,” an official said. At times the gang members were caught easily, other times the cops had their work cut out.“Once Deputy Superintendent of Police jumped into a car with three dangerous gang members and the cops started chasing the car. After nearly five kilometres, the chase ended resulting in arrest of his men,” he added.

The face-off

Stepping on the pressure points resulted in what the SOG wanted: Opportunity. As police started rounding up his team members, he became restive and started to switch places more often. This led to several face-offs. In one such incident, cops succumbed to bullet injuries. In Nagaur, one constable was shot dead when Anand Pal was travelling in a stolen Fortuner SUV. Recently, Anandpal had come to meet a relative in a village in Nagaur where a police team spotted the man and the gangster fired at them. No cop died in the incident.

The last nail...

The ATS and SOG were filtering terabytes of data and voice recordings. The cops also started hurting the gangster financially. His properties bought illegally were attached one by one draining his revenue source. Over the course of a year Anandpal’s gang members were mostly in police net or under radar. That left Anandpal and his two brothers, who were ultimately tracked down by undercover cops at their transit point in Haryana. “Since winter last year the gangster fell off grid,” an officer said. That’s when the cops went after his brothers who revealed Anandpal was in Malasar driving the last nail in his coffin.

THE CHASE

• Every vehicle passing through districts was thoroughly examined by the cops
   
• Instead of directly searching Anandpal, cops realised that they had to play waiting game
   
• Over the course of a year his gang members were mostly in police net or under radar