A stage, hundreds of police officers and nearly 180 active criminals every week. That’s the new strategy Commissioner of Police (CP) Vishwas Nangre Patil is introducing to tighten the city’s grip on repeat offenders. Under the programme, titled “Gunhegaranche Aadan Pradaan” (Exchange of Criminals), the city police will organise weekly parades of active criminals at the headquarters of the North and South regions. The initiative is aimed to improve intelligence sharing between police stations, speed up investigations and ensure stronger preventive action against habitual offenders. Explaining the plan, the CP said every police station will produce five active arrested criminals with a history of serious offences.

 

“Nearly 180 criminals will be presented during every programme. The exercise will be attended by the Commissioner of Police, Joint Commissioner, Additional Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners of Police, Assistant Commissioners, police station in-charges and Detection Branch (DB) officers,” he said. Each accused will be brought on stage and introduced to the officers. Their criminal history, modus operandi, areas of operation and cases registered in different police stations will be presented in detail. Based on this information, senior officers will decide the preventive action to be taken, including proceedings under preventive sections of law and proposals for externment wherever necessary, he explained. According to the Police Commissioner, many habitual offenders operate across several police station limits, but investigations often remain restricted to individual police stations.

 

“The new system is intended to bridge that gap. If a criminal is wanted in multiple cases, he will be handed over to the concerned police stations one after another for further investigation. The Crime Branch will coordinate and monitor the entire process to ensure that every pending case is taken up,” he said. Police will also prepare updated dossiers of habitual offenders, containing details of their criminal activities, arrest history, associates and the preventive action initiated against them. As part of the initiative, investigators will also work to identify the network supporting habitual criminals. This includes tracing those suspected of financing their activities and identifying people who help them continue their criminal operations. Police will also examine their links with prostitutes wherever such connections emerge during the investigation.