Ranchi, Dec. 29: The various odds notwithstanding, 2016 has arguably been a year of significant achievements for Lohardaga police. Apart from raids, recoveries, arrests and surrenders, the police force of the district also succeeded in facilitating conviction of a sizeable number of rebels and hardened criminals.
“Five dreaded rebels were sentenced to life imprisonment this year. This apart, 213 hardened criminals were convicted — 55 got life imprisonment, 39 were sent to jail for more than 10 years, eight got jail terms of seven to 10 years, 10 five to seven years and 28 three to five years. These convictions prove that we don’t leave any escape route for rebels and criminals,” Lohardaga SP Kartik S. told The Telegraph while looking back on the year that will end in two days.
Speaking about the police’s major achievements in dealing with Naxalites, he elaborated that five major encounters took place with different squads of CPI(Maoist), Tritiya Prastuti Committee and Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad.
xtensive search operations led to arrests of 10 rebels belonging to different outfits and four of their supporters. Large quantities of arms and ammunition were recovered while two rebels carrying rewards on their heads surrendered.
“Maoist area commander Santosh Sahu had kidnapped the wife and children of one Surendra Sahu on January 7, 2016, from Bagru at 10.30pm. We rescued them within three to four hours. We also rescued four minors, who were forcibly taken away by Nakul Yadav’s squad. We recently arrested Nakul’s nephew Rohit Yadav while he was collecting levy worth Rs 25.15 lakh,” the SP said.
He also gave due credit to people-friendly policing that endeared the police forces to the masses. According to Kartik, the “Bandook Chhodo, Volleyball Khelo” and “Monsoon Pesrar campaigns helped them win the commoners.
“As for the general law and order, we took prompt action in every case. We rescued one Rohit Gupta within seven hours of his kidnap in Kairo on July 15. We solved several cases of road robberies and burglaries besides recovering stolen items,” the SP said.
