Bihar police expects gang war over extortion over marine Drive - Ganga Path

PATNA: ‘Jar, Joru aur Jameen’, the three ‘J’ due to which most of the organized crime take place seem to give tough time to Bihar police. Cops are on the toes to thwart gang war which they are expecting anytime soon in Patna for demanding extortion over the proposed ‘Marine Drive’- Ganga Path.
Sources said that the organized crimes like extortion and kidnapping for ransom and murders are being planted in Patna over the upcoming Ganga Path.It is a dream project of chief minister Nitish Kumar, is on course to become a reality in two years. The Rs 3,160-crore project would be completed by September 2017. It will be a four-lane 21.5-km highway along the Ganga from Deedarganj to Digha in Patna which will reduce the travel time between Digha and Deedarganj from two hours to less than 25 minutes once it becomes operational.
Looking at the increasing number of reported cases of extortion, it is easy to say that there is a spurt in extortion cases following which murders are taking place, especially after the assembly election. But ground report says that there are more cases of extortion which are going unreported every day.
A senior police official wishing anonymity said, “It is true that after the conclusion of the assembly election, many of the gangsters are feeling overconfident. A sense of creating lawlessness is taking stroll among them. To make it more difficult for, many of the extortion group leaders are now out on bail while the others are sitting in jail, using their brain to organize their groups.”
Recently in a shootout at Nepali Nagar under Rajivnagar police station area one Jaykant Dev had died while his associates Kislay Singh and Manjit Kumar received bullet injuries. Police had filed chargesheet against Kislay and deceased Jaykant in connection with Golu kidnapping case in 2005. “Kislay and Jaykant had started property dealing business recently while both of them are old players for running kidnapping for ransom gangs. Their opponents Niraj Kumar and Shatrughan Rai are veteran criminals accused in extortion cases. They claim levy from extortion companies and are active mostly in North Bihar. Not only Patna based criminals, Azad Hind Fauz, the renegade group which was given free field to counter Maoist activity in North Bihar is also active in extortion. These people either push their own men as contractor or collect levy from the company coming from outside as protection money. Santosh Jha’s group members are also active in the area,” said an official.
Ranveer Yadav and his brother Lallu Yadav and Bhola Singh have age long rivalry over the extortion network from contractors including NTPC contracts. Apart from extortion cases, Bhola Singh who used to be the right hand of Jailed MLA Anant Singh but later one Rajiv Singh was appointed in his place. But later Bhola Singh had allegedly killed Rajiv at his S K Puri apartment in 2013 and was trying to form his own group. “But now small players are joining hands with the veteran ones. Like Bhola Singh failed to take off his own group and now joined back Anant Singh. Singh is in jail but he is operating through Bhola who is roaming freely but absconding for police,” said a police official.
Another veteran extortionist in police records, Ram Janam who went to jail for over a dozen extortion cases is now out on bail and has become active in the diara area where the Marine Drive is coming up. Sources said huge amount of levy is paid to the gangsters for the construction of the Ganga Path but now the gangsters want that all the levy money should go to one gang only which may lead to elimination of gang members.
Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said, “No official report has been made to police regarding this so far. But in anticipation of extortion and kidnapping attempts, we have already stepped up security of the CPWD officials and others working for the project. Security has also been beefed up of NTPC.”