Gujarat: 7,702 criminals living amidst us!

Paul John | TNN , Ahmedabad: Here’s a shocker. Gujarat has 7,702 criminals roaming free — most of them wanted in serious offences and financial scams. Many of them have never been nabbed by the police before. As many as 2,169 absconding criminals are wanted for murder, robbery, loot, rape and kidnapping while 2,010 are wanted for financial scams and cheating in the state. Of the total criminals who are wanted by Gujarat police, 2,556 criminals have escaped the state boundaries.
And of late, if you have been coming across a string of incidents of housebreaks in some of the major cities then don’t be surprised as there are 1,828 criminals wanted for housebreaks in the state. Out of the lot, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara cities have 947 absconding burglars.
A cursory glance at the absconders’ list prepared by the CID (crime) branch for TOI under the Right to Information (RTI) reveals that Surat city has the longest list of absconders with 956 absconders. Surat city police also has the highest number of absconders belonging to outside state with 629 absconders. Ahmedabad city on the other hand is looking for 776 absconders, Vadodara with 749 immediately followed by Mehsana with 504 absconders. Other districts like Bharuch, Anand, Godhra and Sabarkantha are also among the first 10 with an impressive list of absconders in the state. Surat city for instance has the highest number of absconding murderers with 133 of them still at large. The city also has the highest number of absconding kidnappers with 80 of them still to be traced. One the other hand, Ahmedabad city has the highest number of absconding white collar criminals with 294 of them still to be traced.
“One of the major hurdles in tracking absconders is that we don’t have specific information on these absconders. Their addresses are vague, both within the state and outside Gujarat. Most of these absconders are migrants belonging to outside state. Though we have a squad, it is difficult to track these criminals unless we have specific inputs,” says Surat city police commissioner RMS Brar. Besides, there are also around 125 criminals that have escaped from police custody and are yet to be traced. Of these, 20 such criminals escaped from Ahmedabad city police custody followed by 76 from Kutch-Bhuj police custody.
Publication: Times Of India Ahmedabad; Date:2007 Apr 10; Section:Ahmedabad; Page Number 2