Drive to nab Mumbai's most wanted gets extension as cops miss deadline

In January this year, unhappy with the performance of its top brass, the city police launched a drive to nab all the 734 wanted and 803 absconding criminals. Well, not all, but at least around half of the runaways, and the deadline was October.

Over the last few months, instances of criminals jumping parole and furlough have seen an uptick. To curb the trend, the city police commissioner ordered a special 10-month drive and set the task of tracing down the wanted and the absconders to the crime branch. However, even as the sand in the timer has run down, the police have only managed to nab around 20 per cent of those wanted. This has irked the top brass, which has now extended the drive by a month and asked all the police stations in all zones and crime branch units to intensify their search operations.

‘All units working'
A crime branch officer working on the drive, told mid-day, "We have asked all the units to work on criminals whose addresses are in their jurisdiction. In fact, as some cases are decade-old, we have sought help from retired officers too, who are now actively involved in operation."

He added, "Our preference is to get a photograph or a complete description as it is easier to track a criminal with addresses that they provide as surety for parole. Till now, our teams have gone to West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh in search of these criminals. We have had successes, but there is still a lot of work to be done."

Challenges to the task
Another official from the crime branch explained that the main challenge most teams face is passage of time.

"In many cases, criminals change address and relocate themselves. In a few other cases where the accused have been untraceable for more than 5 to 10 years, their physiques have changed so it's hard to identify them," he explained.