51 criminals, 12 gangs ‘missing’ from Lucknow

Fifty-one criminals belonging to 12 mafia gangs in 19 police circles have simply gone missing from Lucknow.The Lucknow police has failed to trace these missing gangsters and has now put them in the “missing” list.

According to police sources, these criminals have been out of reach of the cops since the past few months and even after the court ordered the police to produce them in court, the effort has failed.

A senior police official said that the list of missing criminals was recently compiled after the court took a serious view of the fact that criminals were not being produced for hearings.

“It is obviously the concerned police stations that have failed to keep a track of these hardcore criminals. The police stations are required to constantly track the movements of criminals in their areas but with frequent transfers, the police personnel lose track of outlaws in their areas,” the official said.

The police stations that have failed to track down these criminals include, Hazratganj, Hussainganj, Alambagh, Aashiana, Chowk, Sarojini Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Mahanagar,Saadatganj, Kaiserbagh, Gomti Nagar and Ghazipur. All these police stations include posh residential and commercial establishments and some of them are already identified as being prone to criminal activities. SSP Lucknow Rajesh Pandey said that fresh directives have been issued to the concerned heads of police stations to make renewed efforts to track down criminals.

“We have asked them to initiate an investigation, interrogate families and neighbours and find out where they could have migrated. We are going to take this seriously and zero in on the missing criminals,” he said.

Twelve criminal gangs, known as D gangs in the police parlance, have also gone missing. These include Amarpal, who heads the D-18 gang that is known to carry out cases of loot and robbery, Anwar, who heads a kidnapping gang, Sanjay who is the leader of the infamous “kachcha baniyan” gang and Dilnawaz, who is the head of an auto lifters’ gang.

Police officials feel that these criminals have either moved to another city or state after the cops turned on the heat or have assumed another identity.