After arresting notorious criminal Vijay Singh alias Genda Singh, Ranchi police is planning to dig up dirt on his partners in crime whose names he has disclosed during interrogation. Genda has furnished police a list of 26 names including his brothers Amar Singh, Yugeshwar Singh alias Yugesh and Tribhuvan Singh, along with several other accomplices and henchmen.
“Some of these individuals have been engaged in land grabbing and extortion on their own, apart from working with Genda. We plan to call up Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department to find out any economic offence committed by them,” stated Senior Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Dwivedi during a press conference on Saturday.
Whereabouts of Genda’s brothers, lakhan Singh and Amar Singh, as well as one of his accomplice, Taukir, all wanted criminals themselves, are also being searched. In his statements, Genda has divulged that these three are together without disclosing their locations yet.
One week ago, Ranchi police received a tip-off that Genda is hiding in Odisha at Puri. A team led by City SP Kishore Kaushal and Hatia ASP Prashant Anand arrived there and arrested and brought him back to Ranchi.
“Although he claims to have fled to Odisha to escape the pressure from police forces in Ranchi, we have found land agreements in Odia which show that he had extended his land grabbing businesses to the neighbouring State too,” said the SSP.
On his information, police recovered several documents related to land ownership and six mobile phones from his home. Genda also informed about a pistol, four live cartridges and two crude bombs buried under Kalvadova Bridge near Dahu village, which were seized later.
These weapons were used by Genda’s underlings to intimidate landowners to give up their land plots, stated Dwivedi. Their modus operandi used to focus on getting their takeover a legal backing as much as possible.
“Once targeting a site, Genda and his men used to create some problems there to force the landowners to sell the piece of land. They projected their acquaintances as buyers and mediated the deal. This way, they acquired some commission from the exchange and the land too through their contact, cleverly legalising the whole process,” said the SSP.
In the documents confiscated, police has found a map of land plots in Ranchi district, with some of the area marked in yellow. These pieces of lands were probably next on the Genda’s target list, stated Dwivedi.
Genda has been involved in several cases of extortion and land grabbing, along with cases of murder and Arms Act violation, with several cases registered against him in Dhurwa, Tatisilwai, Jagganathpur, Namkum, lalpur, Angara, Kotwali, Bariatu, Doranda and Khunti police stations.
“The plans and names he has disclosed will be worked upon in coming days. Genda’s arrest has boosted the morale of police force and dealt a mojor blow to organised crime in Ranchi,” said Dwivedi.
Our next target will be absconding criminal luvkush Sharma, he added.