New crop of educated kidnappers irks police

Gyan Prakash / TNN / Mar 4, 2006, 01:58 IST

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Kidnapping has become a huge problem for the law and order managers of the state.

New crop of educated kidnappers irks police

PATNA: Kidnapping has become a huge problem for the law and order managers of the state not only because the number of gangsters involved in crimes has swelled but also because a new crop of educated unemployed youths have joined their ranks.
These youths are giving sleepless nights to the police. According to high-level sources, the police headquarters have identified 110 criminal gangs involved in kidnapping for ransom in the entire state.
Patna accounts for the highest number of 25 such gangs operating in and around the state capital, followed by Muzaffarpur with 18 gangs.
Prominent among the gangs operating in Patna and its outskirts are those led by Santosh Kumar, Krishna Yadav, Ram Pravesh Thakur, Brahmanand Paswan, Raman Yadav, Samdev Singh, Sakal alias Manohar Yadav, Ramanuj Pandey, Manas Choudhary and Dhruv Rai.

The police have bumped off notorious criminals like Vikky Shukla, Mini Rai and Chhotka Santosh on different occasions. The trio had kept the Patna police on their toes with a series of kidnappings.
A police officer said gangsters Guddu Rai and Pintu Singh, who were involved in the kidnapping of Golu, are still evading arrest although two of their associates were nabbed earlier.
The police have also not been able to nab Prashant Jain's kidnappers. One of them ran an STD booth while another was a driver.

What is more disturbing is that even youths belonging to well-to-do families have started indulging in kidnapping as it pays rich dividends with little effort.
The police, in course of the investigation of the kidnapping of Bajaj Allianz manager and sales agent, came across evidence suggesting the involvement of the sons of a lawyer and a bank manager in the crime, the sources said.
Patna SSP Kundan Krishnan said the police find it difficult to identify and locate these youths with no previous criminal records.
He held house owners responsible for letting out their houses to such elements without verifying their past records.
Police sources said the kidnapping gangs in Muzaffarpur are led by Rajgir Rai, Chandeshwar Prasad, Mohammad Musharad Dafa, Police Sahni, Kishun Yadav, Alamgir Mian, America Yadav, Bhagar Yadav, Dhananjay Kumar and others.
According to police, four other gangs led by Rameshwar Prasad, Ganesh Kahar, Kameshwar Gope and Umesh Prasad are active in the extremist-hit Jehanabad district.
In Gaya, the gangs led by Ganesh Prasad and Santosh Kumar Singh have been identified. The police said these two gangs were earlier interested only in providing shelter to kidnapped persons brought in from the areas like Varanasi, Aurangabad and Muzaffarpur.
"Ridiculously," sources said, "the police list do not mention the names of patrons, including some politicians, who mastermind kidnappings."
The police claimed to have faced a peculiar situation in dealing with the kidnapping of school student Nirmalendu, son of a key fodder scam accused, Dr O P Diwakar, as his family allegedly did not cooperate with the investigating officers.
A police officer said there was total non-cooperation from the boy's family members till he was released at the Hajipur end of Mahatma Gandhi Setu.
The Patna SSP said: "In Nirmalendu's case, different gangs joined hands to commit the kidnapping." The kidnappers are yet to be nabbed.

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