With over two months having elapsed since the dreaded criminal Amit Malik alias ‘Bhura’ escaped from police custody, Uttarakhand police are still stumbling in the dark over the gangster’s whereabouts. nHe escaped while being taken to the court in Baghpat (Uttar Pradesh). The state of things is a sad commentary on the functioning of the State’s police with crimes happening thick and fast.
However, senior cops still claim that they would soon get the long-awaited breakthrough with the teams mandated to net in the jail bird back in the cage working round the clock. However, such claims being dished out at regular intervals whenever the ignominy of police comes to the surface thanks to the media and the Opposition are far from changing the people’s perception of the ‘laggard’ police.
“Things are still festering in police with the Chief Minister and others slamming us off and on for failing to conjure up the breakthrough. Police’s credibility can hardly be restored unless we step on some concrete success in this infamous case. However, it is doubtful where it would come up soon with the possibility of the wily criminal having crossed the borders,” said a senior police official while insisting on anonymity.
STF Uttarakhand SSP Sadanand Date said that some experienced and skilled police officers from three States- UP, Uttarakhand and Delhi— keep monitoring the progress made by the teams from a special control room located in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. He himself occasionally visits the control room, Noida to review things, he said.
The police officers of the rank of inspectors from Uttarakhand have been deputed to work at the control room, Noida. They in conjunction with teams from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi have been working on the information received from various sources. Moreover, teams are being sent on specific locations to conduct raids to arrest the absconding gangster and his aides, he added.
He further said that the sketches and photos of Bhura along with the mention of Rs10 lakh as announced by the Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh governments for information leading to the gangster’s arrest have been pasted too at various places across the country. mAnother police officer said that investigation revealed that around 16 criminals were involved in the escapade drama. The teams thus formed so far have arrested some of the fugitive’s aides.
Those arrested were Samar Pal, Babi Tomar, P Kumar and Mohammad Gauri alias Mohammad Saddam, Arvind Rohila and Ravi Kumar. They are now cooling their heels behind bars. mThe teams also seized one AK-47 rifle from the arrested criminals. Teams are working now to recover another AK -47 rifle and SlR looted from police during the escape, Date added.
Notably, Bhura had escaped from police custody while being taken to the court in Baghpat in connection with a murder case, giving the escorting personnel a slip on December 15 last. The armed criminals had sprinkled chilli power on cops on duty and looted police of two AK-47 rifles and one self-loading rifle (SlR) aside from securing the escape of Bhura from the escorting cops.
