Rajasthan: After brief lull, gangsters are back as cops try to nail them

JAIPUR: The criminal landscape of Rajasthan in 2019 was heavily dominated by the rise of notorious gangs, their crime bosses and bitter turf wars with one another.

An annual dossier prepared by the Rajasthan police points out that a following a brief lull after Anandpal Singh’s encounter three years ago, several new gangs have emerged to rule ganglands.
The report shows that albeit traditionally feared syndicates like Ananpal Singh, Raju Teth, Lawrance Bishnoi and Shivraj Singh gangs have become more lees defunct, yet there are inputs of growing affinity between Anandpal Singh’s former man Friday Subhash Baral and Punjab’s notorious crime boss Lawrence Bishnoi.
“Both Baral and Lawrance are locked up in different jails. Yet, there are some criminal activities which had their common footprints including the murder of a former sarpnach in Sikar in 2017,” an official informed TOI.
Beside Baral and Bishnoi alliance, other criminal organizations and crime lords also cropped up fast across all major cities of the state. According to the report, Anil Pandya and Ajay gangs are active in Sikar, Mohammad Azam and Imran Kunjda gangs are operational in Udaipur.
In Ajmer, Varun Choudhary and Sanjay Meena gangs are under constant surveillance, while in Jodhpur Shyam Poonia and Hanuman Bishnoi gangs are very much alive and kicking. Similarly, Mahakal and Om Sai gangs are active in Bhiwadi and Alwar regions.
“Some of these gangs are locked in a bitter war for publicity and territory control. The most worrying sign is their eagerness to open fire to create panic,” said an official, adding that some of the most heavily guarded prison walls have also failed to impede criminal activities of gangs.
In Jaipur, Munna Talwar, Musharraf and Roopa Meena gangs kept police on their toes. In Jodhpur, 007 gang earned particular notoriety with their members dancing to the Haryanvi songs and in Alwar, Vikram Singh alias Papla fired at cops and fled Behror police’s lock up.