india

Updated: Jun 22, 2019 12:09 IST

For more than a week now, one of Rajasthan’s most wanted dacoits continues to elude a massive manhunt by over 400 policemen in the ravines along the Chambal river in the east near the border with Madhya Pradesh.

The police launched the manhunt after Jagan Gurjar (45) and his gang stripped two women in Saypur-Karansingh village of Dholpur on June 13 and paraded them through the village. The bandits suspected that their families were police informers.

The police team searching the Dang area along the river for the elusive dacoit includes special commandos of the anti-terror squad (ATS), quick response teams and emergency response teams with force from Dholpur and Karauli districts.

The police team even engaged the gang in an encounter on June 14 in which more than 150 rounds were fired between the two groups but the bandits managed to escape in the terrain that is unfamiliar to the police.

The Chambal ravines spread across more than 300 sq km from Sarmathura to Rajakhera in Dholpur district are unchartered territory for most of the policemen.

“Around 300 cops in Dholpur and 150 in Karauli are deployed to arrest Jagan Gurjar and his gang,” said Bharatpur Range Inspector General of Police Bhupendra Sahu. “We are also in contact with the Madhya Pradesh police. Jagan will be in our hands soon,” he added.

“Three companies of Rajasthan Armed Constabulary (RAC) and ATS commandos have been sent from Jaipur for the operation,” said an officer in police headquarters who did not want to be identified.

Dholpur superintendent of police Ajay Singh and Karauli police chief Preeti Chandra are leading the forces. Sahu has even used drones to spot the dacoits. Police are deployed along the Chambal bank to prevent dacoits’ escape to Madhya Pradesh across the river.

But in more than a week, police have arrested one gang member, Soneram Gurjar (55), and a supplier of cartridges, Khuman Singh, (52). Soneram’s two sons, Bharat and Yaduveer, are also in Jagan’s gang.

After the June 14 encounter with the dacoits, Dholpur SP announced a reward of Rs 5,000 for any information leading to Jagan Gurjar’s arrest. On June 19, police headquarters in Jaipur raised this to Rs 40,000.

Every morning since June 15, police teams visit the villages in the ravines, announce on loudspeakers that villagers helping the dacoits will face action and return to their base stations – Kotwali, Sadar, Bari and Sarmathura police stations.

A Dholpur police officer said they have arrested Jagan Gurjar’s mother and his sister-in-law from his native village, Bhavutipura, in Dholpur after they pelted police teams with stones when they went to seek information about the dacoits.

According to police, Jagan Gurjar who is a terror in Dholpur villages along the Chambal river, entered the world of crime in 1994 when the first case against him was registered at Bari police station on January 23, 1994 on charges of voluntarily causing hurt and wrongful restraint.

He shot to infamy during the Gurjar agitation in 2009 when he announced that he would kill the then chief minister Vasundhara Raje.

He has been in jail twice after being convicted in cases of loot and attempt to murder

There have been 95 criminal cases against him, and according to information from Bharatpur Range office, he has been acquitted in more than 20, and discharged in three cases.

He had been released on bail on June 10.