Eleven special teams of the Central Crime Branch police conducted simultaneous raids on the houses of 25 rowdy sheeters on Thursday from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. This was part of a massive exercise taken up by Additional CP (Crime) Alok Kumar and DCP (Crime) S. Girish to curb land grabbers, rowdies and extortionists, Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar said. The raids allegedly yielded a trove of documents pointing towards large-scale land grabbing activities based on which these gangs were thriving.
The teams searched their houses for illegal land documents and unauthorised weapons. In total, more than a hundred illegal land documents were seized along with 15 cheques, 14 mobile phones, 300 gm of gold, three cars, two cash counting machines, Rs. 2.2 lakh demonetised and fake notes, a fake pistol, knives, two swords and three machetes among other weapons. The police also found six tins of pepper spray.
The commissioner said the police would stringently deal with people who who turned to criminal activities and invoke the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA) against the accused.
The raids were planned over the last two days. Cases will be registered under the appropriate Acts, based on the documents and weapons seized from their houses, he said.
The rowdy sheeters include Lokesh, Kommaghatta Manja, Lakshman, Mahim, Lakkasandra Viji, Giri, Michael D Souza, Shankar, Appu, Gali Ravi, Mahesh, Doodh Ravi, Bethanagere Shankar, Jagadeesh, Vediyappan, Raja Kutti, Thirumaran, Tanveer and Amir Khan.
Alert the police
The police have asked the public to reach out to them to report land grab and other criminal offences. Complainants can call 9480-801-555, said Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar. The police will also be introducing a toll-free number in the CCB for the same purpose.
Goonda Act for drug peddlers
The police has booked three drug peddlers under the Goonda Act, the police commissioner said. Earlier, the police had announced a crackdown on drug peddlers in the city and had started a toll-free number for people to report cases of drug abuse.
