Click to play videoNew Delhi: It's been two days since three-year-old Anant was kidnapped from the National Capital Region. Are criminal gangs thriving in western Uttar Pradesh?
Kidnapping has been called an industry in Bihar. Is kidnapping for ransom Bihar's only growth industry?
Insecurity in Noida has risen after Anant's kidnapping. Are islands of affluence in the midst of social inequalities particularly vulnerable to crimes like kidnapping?
The kidnapping of Anant has made it clear that kidnappers can strike whenever they want to.
On Wednesday, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav said Anant will be home soon, but the fact is that there are over a dozen big and small gangs in the area that specialise in kidnapping and affluent suburbs are the inevitable targets.
Noida, from where Anant was kidnapped is like any other posh suburb in India with shopping malls and big houses - however, they are all surrounded by the poverty-stricken badlands of Uttar Pradesh.
The rich and the poor live cheek by jowl and the threat is very real.
CNN-IBN's Sagarika Ghose spoke to former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, K L Gupta, Geeta Devi from Patna whose son was kidnapped last May and of whom there is still no trace and Secretary of the East of Kailash Residents' Welfare Association, Wing Commander J S Chaddha to find out whether kidnapping has become the new threat for the affluent in India.
Sagarika Ghose: A former IG has said that the kidnapping industry which exists in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is a high profit and low risk industry. It's bloodless and there is a lot of cash that can got by through the kidnapping. Do you feel that a lot of unemployed youth are being drawn to kidnapping because of the unique opportunities it affords in a perverse kind of a way?
K L Gupta: I agree with these observations. It is a low risk, high profit kind of a crime system and UP and Bihar are specialising in this. These states have high population, less industries and a lot of unemployment. Moreover, the western UP - Meerut division - eastern UP - Gorakhpur and Varanasi - these areas specialise in these types of crimes. There is criminalisation of politics also where most of the criminals have political links and political patronage.
Sagarika Ghose: But isn't it also a fact that the police are simply unable to tackle these criminal gangs precisely because of the lack of coordination between the police departments of different states keeping in mind the fact that a gang can move from state to state very easily.
Don't you think the police of different states need to be much more coordinated than they are at the moment?
K L Gupta: Yes that is one of the problems. The other problem is the low intensity of policing in Noida. It needs the policing pattern of Delhi because itis an extension of Delhi now considering it comes in the National Capital Region. So it needs a larger police force, more mobile vans and more wireless sets. The government has not given adequate attention to this expansion of the police force.
Moreover, there is a lot of political indifference in political transfers. The right type of people and professionally competent people should be posted in sensitive areas, especially in Noida as it is our industrial face. If anything happens - especially in Sector 14 or 15A which are the poshest localities of Noida where all the top industrialists and bureaucrats live - then it gives a wrong signal and there is a lot of panic and demoralisation among the people.
Sagarika Ghose: Let us talk to Geeta Devi - a citizen of India who continues to suffer even as the Government continues to criminally neglect its police force. Geeta Devi, your son has been kidnapped. Is the police helping you out?
THE KIDNAPPING INDUSTRY | |
 | While 3,196 cases of child kidnappings were reported in 2004, the numbers rose to more than 3,500 in 2005. |
| In 1997, eight-year-old Tarun Puri was abducted at gunpoint from Golf Links in Delhi. He was recovered some days later from sugarcane fields in western Uttar Pradesh. No ransom was paid. |
| The accused were arrested but managed to escape. They were finally caught just last month on October 26. |
| In January 2005, Kishlay Komal, a seventh standard student, was abducted in Patna. Kishlay was recovered 17 days later after ransom was allegedly paid. |
| In February, 2005, 18-month-old Arpit Dewan was kidnapped by his maid from South Delhi. Arpit's father, was a software engineer with Coca-Cola. Arpit was later found in Orissa. |
| In June 2005, son of a brokering firm partner, 16-year-old Vaibhav Agarwal was kidnapped from Mumbai. Kidnappers demanded a Rs 3 crore ransom but were nabbed. Vaibhav was found in a house in Ghaziabad. |
Geeta Devi No, the police is not helping me at all. We went twice to the Chief Minister's Janta Durbar (People's Court). My son had left the house at 6:30 in the morning and when he did not return till 12:30, we started panicking and looked everywhere, called up all relatives but there was no sign of him.
Then we went to the police station to lodge an FIR. The police told us, 'Go and look around again and if you don't find him a second time, then come to us and then we will lodge a complaint'.
Sagarika Ghose: So has the police got back to you with a report on what may have happened to your son and who may have kidnapped him? Have the kidnappers contacted you and asked for a ransom?
Geeta Devi No, the police has told us nothing till date and there has been no ransom call.
Sagarika Ghose: Did your son have any enemies who may have done this?
Geeta Devi As far as I know, neither my son nor my family has any enemies who may have done this. And my son was a very innocent boy.
Sagarika Ghose: Now, the point is - are the private security guards which many colonies are now employing enough against well-armed and well-organised gangs?
Wing Cdr J S Chaddha: Colonies are employing private guards on their own and they are not affiliated to any agencies. We try and take help from the police to get their antecedents verified, but the police verification is really an eyewash because we send them the particulars of the guards and they don't get back to us for two to three years to tell us whether after the verification everything is clear.
Sagarika Ghose: So what do we need then? More public partnership?
Wing Cdr J S Chaddha: Exactly. Like in the case of Anant, the kidnapping happened in broad daylight, so my question is that why didn't the people present there give a chase? Someone should have called the police immediately. That public participation is missing.
At the last general body meeting that our RWA had, security was the main issue. There are some justifications that people give to these crimes like inequality, increased consumerism and moral degradation but these things have been and will always be there. Inspite of all these things, we have to solve these problems.
Sagarika Ghose: So what you are saying is that security does remain the main issue confronting most people who live in Delhi and all the major metros today.
Mr K L Gupta isn't it also a fact now that the police instead of tackling these gangs is often actively colluding with them?
Constables are engaging in monetary transactions with gangs and the amount of money that is received in ransom is shared among officers? So is there enough necessary will on the part of the police?
| CRIME STATS | |
| 440 cases of kidnapping were registered from the sugarcane belt last year. 317 cases were registered in 2003. | |
| Ghaziabad alone had 95 cases last year and Noida 32. Meerut had 119 cases, Baghpat 28, Bulandshahar 67, Muzaffarnagar 77 and Saharanpur registered 22 cases of kidnapping. | |
| Kidnapping is a booming industry in Bihar. In the last three months itself, 1302 people have been abducted in the state. | |
| Only in September the state government in its affidavit informed the Patna High Court that 904 children have been abducted in Bihar since 2001. | |
| Of the 904 children reported as abducted, 766 were rescued, 40 killed by kidnappers and 98 are still missing. The affidavit was filed in response to a PIL on the abductions of children, business and professionals. | |
| According to a progress report of pending abduction cases submitted by state government to the Patna high court, 599 fresh abduction cases were registered in month of August, 371 in September and 332 in October this year. | |
| The court took the state government to task for failing to arrest nearly 5,000 absconding kidnappers despite several court orders and directed the chief secretary to come up with a concrete plan.
|
K L Gupta: See there are black sheep in every organisation. The police is also not free of all these maladies. I feel that it is the duty of senior officers to pinpoint and isolate the offending officers and punish them and more importantly, not post them in sensitive positions.
But the main problem is not these petty policemen. The problem is the criminal-political nexus. Criminals have politicised themselves, they have got elected as MPs and MLAs and hold high public offices, so there is no deterrent for them and the police get demoralised for they are effectively breaking down the criminal justice system in UP and Bihar - especially as trials take 15 to 20 years to conclude.
Sagarika Ghose: So there is completely no fear of the law. Wing Cdr J S Chaddha, from the point of view of the RWAs, the inequalities in our societies are increasing. On the one hand the rich are getting richer and on the other hand there is anger among those who are not part of the wealth.
So what is the solution? Should we all retreat behind gated communities? Should we all be ghettoed and be policed constantly? What is solution to this divide that is growing increasingly in our cities?
Wing Cdr J S Chaddha: We cannot convert our communities into fortresses and even if do, are we not going to come out of them? Are we going to stay there forever? Small children after all have to go to schools and everyone has lives to live. The solution is that there should be a collusion between the police and the people. Everyone as is said in Sikh religion must become a citizen soldier.
Sagarika Ghose: One of the things that Anant's family has said is that they don't want media coverage. What role can the media play in a situation like this? Media coverage has perhaps ensured that the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has woken up and taken notice.
Wing Cdr J S Chaddha: One of the reasons why the family may have said this is perhaps that they are scared. They don't know what will be the effect of the media coverage, but I think media coverage is satisfying because if nothing else, the face of the boy is all over national TV and people may recognise him at the place where he is being hidden.
However, I would request the media to create awareness in the public that there should be some sort of respect for the rule of the law otherwise these kind of incidents will never see an end.
Sagarika Ghose: Mr K L Gupta, do you agree that the police needs to enter into some kind of a partnership with the media to spread awareness about the rule of law?
K L Gupta: Yes media can play a very important role in spreading awareness and show how the police and public can participate in preventing crimes, because we cannot do much if the public is not with us. We need the public to support us at every step.
Sagarika Ghose: What kind of a role should the media play in a situation like Anant's kidnapping?
K L Gupta: The media has exposed this kidnapping case very well. The government has sat up and taken notice, but what the media must realise is that over-playing the incident may damage the chances of recovery of the boy and that should be avoided. Otherwise you have done your job well.
Sagarika Ghose: Geeta Devi, would you like the media to pick up your case and give it the kind of attention that Anant's kidnapping has received?
Geeta Devi: Yes. I want the media to find my child. Just get him home from anywhere. When we went to the Janta Durbar, they handed our case over to the Superintendent of Police there. However, the police refused to register it as a kidnapping and registered my son as a missing person. It was only later that it was registered as a case of kidnapping.
Sagarika Ghose: It is indeed a sad state of affairs. Inequalities are increasing and with it so is crime. But how terrible that a tiny child is bearing the burden of increasing criminality.
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