Guarding city during pandemic, 18 cops made supreme sacrifice

 

 

YEAR 2020 will remain etched in the memory of police personnel and citizens as a never-imagined event as lockdown forced the policemen to guard the streets round-the-clock to save the citizens from infection of Novel Coronavirus. A total of 18 policemen attached to City Police died due to the infection while 1,334 were infected. Beyond the valiant fight against the deadly virus as Front-line Warriors, the cops were on their regular job with the same alacrity. Police initiated stern action against thugs like Mangesh Kadav, Preeti Das, Santosh Ambekar and Sahil Sayyad which not only boosted morale of the force but also gave a reason for citizens to trust the Nagpur Police Force. On the very first day of year 2020, a new year celebration party had turned into a bloodbath as two youths were attacked by their friends. On the same day, robbers had fled with ATM machines from Wadi area. An inter-state gang of robbers was busted by the police within five days.

 

A gory mishap was witnessed by the city at Mhalgi Nagar square in January in which a tipper hit a jeep of workers killing four. A brutal murder of an electrician took place in February for which a Dhaba owner and his employee were arrested by the police. Body of the electrician was buried by the owner behind the Dhaba after killing him. Brutal murders continued in February, too, as a woman and her uncle were killed by her husband over family disputes in Dattatreya Nagar. On March 24, the lockdown was enforced to prevent infection of coronavirus in City. Entire police force was deployed across the city for enforcement of the curfew. In June and July, police put many fraudsters behind bars including Yuva Sena’s former City unit Chief Vikram Rathod and his brother Sanjog Rathod, Shiv Sena’s City Unit Chief Mangesh Kadav, Zero Degree Bar owner Tapan Jaiswal, Preeti Das, and Sahil Sayyad.

 

The fraudsters had extorted crores of rupees from common people and also grabbed their properties. Dr Praveen Gantawar, Addl Health Officer, and his wife Dr Sheelu, Medical Officer, were booked by ACB in July for possessing disproportionate assets of Rs 2.5 crore. Once again a brutal double murder was witnessed by the city in which a husband killed his wife and her paramour with axe in Manewada area in July. Brutal crimes were high in August as two youths were killed by rival gangs in Butibori in a gang-war and former corporator Deva Usre was also killed by his enemies. In a heart-wrenching incident, four members of Rane family were found dead in their house sending shockwaves across the city. Investigation revealed that Dr. Sushma Rane had killed her husband Prof. Dhiraj, son Dhruv and daughter Vanya and later committed suicide. Dreaded goon Balya Binekar was killed by his rival Chetan Hajare near Bhole Petrol Pump in September.

 

The broad daylight murder was a matter of discussion in the city as the video of the murder went viral on social media. Amitesh Kumar, an IPS officer of 1995 batch took charge of Nagpur City police, on September 4, from Dr Bhushankumar Upadhyay, who was transferred to State Highway Police. In another broad daylight murder case, a vegetable vendor was shot dead by two persons over monetary dispute in Sakkardara area in November. Multicrore Metrovision Buildcon Scam surfaced in November which raised eyebrows as a 12th passed man Vijay Gurnule duped more than 25,000 investors of Rs 76 crore in 10 months. Over 16 persons have been arrested by the police so far.