Gangs moving to Pune outskirts to escape police crackdown?

NCP leader's murder in Paud suggests gangs are moving out of city police jurisdiction

After the crackdown by the city police on organised crime syndicates, gangs have shifted base to the outskirts of the city.

Different jurisdiction
As the city outskirts fall under the jurisdiction of the rural police, moving to the fringes is a strategic move on the part of the gangs to dodge the city police.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Sanjay Sadashiv alias Pintya Marne (28) from Kothrud was on Saturday hacked to death with sharp weapons in Paud, about 30 kilometres from the city.

There seems to be little doubt that the murder was the outcome of the ongoing gang war between the Marne and Sandeep Mohol gangs, based in Kothrud and Mulshi areas respectively.

Gangs feel the heat
Police sources said the Marne and Mohol gangs have started feeling the heat after the city police cracked down hard on them. "The Pune police have taken the rise in organised crime seriously and are sparing no effort to break the back of crime syndicates, forcing gangs to move outside the city," said a source. "Mostly, the outskirts come under the Pune Rural Police jurisdiction."

The jurisdiction area of the rural police is vast and the topography is distinctively different. Also, the rural police have less manpower and other resources compared to the city police. "Gangsters operate in the city or rural jurisdictions according to their convenience," said Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Prabhakar Patil said. "But it seems that invoking the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against the gangs has worked."

Police Inspector Bhausaheb Andhalkar of the Local Crime Branch, Pune Rural Police, said, "It would not be correct to say that the gangs have moved their base in the rural areas. Pintya Marne's murder is an isolated incident as far as gang wars go, as all other shootouts have taken place in the city."