Bulandshahr gangrape: Akhilesh Yadav's panic reaction puts question mark over super-quick arrests

Nothing accentuates a crime more than a panic reaction. And yet, panic it is that seems to be dictating the actions of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav following the rape of a mother and her daughter on the Delhi-Kanpur highway near Bulandshahr on Saturday. The alacrity with which the state police claimed to have solved the crime reeks of suspicion of political pressure. In a crime of this nature, highway gangs are rarely local and very nimble of foot. In police parlance, such gangs are known as “challemar gang”- those whose signature is the use spare cycle parts as to be used as weapons of crime. In the Bulandshahr case, the crime scene does indicate a clear imprint of the Bavaria gang, a nomadic criminal tribe that operates in Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh and Bundlekhand region. Senior police officers, who have served long in west UP point out that such crimes are often not reported for fear of social stigma. In this case, the family proved to be courageous enough to come out and file a case. According to experts, Bavaria gangs rely on the tribe and they rarely trust outsiders. However in the process of unraveling the case at super-sonic speed, the UP arrested a mix of people from the tribe and outside, making the arrests extremely suspect. [caption id=“attachment_2927382” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav. PTI[/caption] Prima facie, the manner in which the case is being handled, seems guided less by professionalism and more by politics. The fact is that the Bulandshahr double-rape reinforces the impression that Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav presides over a regime with the worst law and order record. With the state Assembly elections barely six months away, Yadav, who has been flooding the airwaves with  advertisements claiming to be a governance superstar, it seems has delivered an ultimatum to his police force to “solve” the case in double quick time. Sources in the government say that Yadav threatened to change the entire top brass of the police if they failed to solve the case within 24 hours. “This is the worst way of solving a crime which is not an ordinary open and shut case like fratricides,” said a senior police officer at Lucknow. Obviously, a mature reaction to this horrific crime would have served purpose of justice better, said police officers acquainted with the modus operandi of the Bavaria and other criminal tribes. Though there have been attempts to bring in these tribes to the mainstream, particularly in areas like Muzaffarnagar, and introduce them to the new education system, it has not met with much success. Interestingly, these gangs thrive on patronage by local police officers with whom they share one-sixth of their booty. In the past, most of these gang members used to walk on foot and were easier to apprehend. Police investigations in eastern Uttar Pradesh have, however, found that these gangs now drive cars and cover large distances within their areas of operation in 24 hours. “In a case in Jaunpur, next to Varanasi, the gangs were found to be coming straight from Jaipur and committing crimes in the region and getting away easily,” an officer, who investigated the case told Firstpost. What is quite worrisome is the fact that though police officers are aware of the complex nature of this crime, they seemed to be yielding to political pressure and to the whims of a chief minister who is keen to acquire the image of a governance superstar overnight at the expense of policing.