Currency Capers Of Conniving Cops In Gujarat !

 BY R.K.MISRA

Crime does not pay but the criminal does!

So it was that the currency capers of conniving cops became the flavour of the season, this last week in Gujarat.

On December 12,2022, Bharat alias Bobby Patel alleged by the cops to be  the notorious kingpin of an international illegal immigration racket operating out of Gujarat was nabbed by law enforcement agencies  in Ahmedabad. The arrest came ten months after an FIR was filed against him  when a Gujarati  family froze to death while trying to make an illegal crossing into the US from Canada. The State Monitoring Cell(SMC),a watchdog body which functions under the direct charge of the state police chief took credit for it though a thick fat dossier on his criminal activities was handed over to the Indian authorities by their counterpart agencies abroad as was a tip on his movement. Ninety four passports including five fake ones were learnt to have been seized from his office. Two of the happiest hunting grounds for the illegal immigration racket operating out of India are Gujarat and Punjab and Bobby is alleged to be a part of the global network. Three weeks later, he was out on bail having denied any wrong doing in court.

However Bobby Patel is not the subject of this writing , the Gujarat police is. Over a month later, on January 18,the Home department of the Gujarat government announced the suspension of an inspector of the SMC, accused of taking bribes in the case wherein the racket kingpin figured. The official explanation was that complaints had been received and the evidence gathered suggested monetary involvement to favour Bobby and so the action. Though there was no mention of the amount involved, a published media report put it in crores. That the home ministry came into the picture attests to the seriousness of the matter and also that the axis of information necessitating action lies outside  the state. The inspector came into the ambit of suspicion  after it was known that despite not being connected to the case he had a two hour long meeting with Bobby at a city police station.

Highly placed sources aver to the fact that the suspected involvement of some ruling party politicians in the effort to intercede in the illegal immigration case has piqued the PMO which saw red and directed the national party top brass to seek a detailed report from Gujarat.

The SMC is considered an elite set-up which has over-riding statewide jurisdiction to conduct raids in connection with liquor and allied offences. Now the entire SMC is in the cross-hairs of suspicion. Moreover It  has come into controversy at a time when the present Director General of Police, Ashish Bhatia to which it reports and  who has already been given two extensions is slated to retire at the end of the month and a choice of his successor is underway in the union home ministry.

 Now comes news that the elite watchdog of the Gujarat police, the State Monitoring Cell was itself under watch ! the siege within was masterminded by its own-two constables of the Bharuch district Local Crime Branch.(LCB). The cops had been provided a cellphone that provided them access to the  SMC network so that they may keep them informed of bootlegging operations to facilitate raids. Instead, the SMC  claims , that the suspended cops used the communication instrument to keep tabs on the movement of SMC officers and men and tipped off the bootleggers on the impending raids for financial considerations. This had been going on for some months but  suspicion was roused when the SMC raids began proving  a damp squib leading to  an internal investigations and the nailing of the two cops who were getting hefty monthly payoffs from the bootleggers, had reportedly been gifted luxury cars and  had enjoyed sojourns abroad.

Liquor is big business in Gujarat and the single largest bribe-multiplier for the police in the state. Even before the shame of the Bharuch cop- tattling- on- cop infamy could subside, police in Aravalli district running a regular liquor supply business to retailing bootleggers and sourcing it from neighbouring Rajasthan has come to light. Acting on information a car was stopped and its checking led to seizure of 240 bottles of liquor bound for the state capital of Gandhinagar. Investigations revealed a regular liquor supply network being run by the two police constables.

Money making in policing is as endemic as the common cold but over the years it has acquired a base to apex pyramidal- institutional framework through a shadowy phenomenon called the ‘vahivatdar’(administrator). This ‘phantom’ nomenclature regulates the flow of illegal gratification in the policing system like the veins in the body carry blood. This in turn nourishes a  serpentine black money empire. For example  the bulk of the jeep taxis plying between state capital Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad are owned by cops and are therefore immune to overloading and traffic ruled restrictions. Ditto luxury buses attached to big passenger transport networks  as well as highway hotels and restaurants. 

Ex-cops with blemished records figure as some of the big political names in the state today.

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