POLICE AND THE UNDERWORLD

Behind every great fortune, there is a crime, said Balzac; behind every great

crime, there is underworld indulged in making unlimited profits. Might is right there and

only the fittest survive. Animal side of man is at its best in this business of organised

crimes. Gangs operate in violation of accepted social norms to make fast buck. They are

antisocials and threats to the peace and security of the law-abiding society.

POWERFUL CONNECTIONS

Pollent organisation is both a strength and weakness of crime syndicates.

Organisation provides these gangs the benefits of a well-oiled management machinery:

objectives, targets, data collection, through planning, right recruitments, motivation,

coordination, communication system, competent direction, infrastructure, efficient

execution, leadership and accountability, and with it, the all important ruthless efficiency.

Added to this are the ruthlessness and the enormous wealth of the crime world. The

combination is deadly and the result is powerful connections at right places doing right

things at right times in their interests. Silence and secrecy are the keys here. Powerful

and the underworld complement each other for mutual benefits and the arrangements

usually cover politicians in power, top bureaucrats, those high-up in judiciary and

enforcement agencies including the police. Enormous ill-gotten wealth amassed by

criminal methods bring powerful connections within the reach of crime syndicates to
twist the arms of law. Thus develops an axis between underworld and the powerful to the

detriment of the country.

HAND IN GLOVE

Underworld is an independent world per se. It is a world of crimes, secrecy,

silence, fear, loyalties, dangers, wealth, outlaws, sui generis professional norms,

efficiency and wide-ranging infrastructures. Here various gangs coexist with deadly

rivalry or alliance and partnership. There is no road in between. Choice in the netherland

is between success and imminent death. Though underworld and open world coexist on

the surface of the Earth, their objectives, values and norms of action render them worlds

apart. It is only the police from the open world keep avizefull eyes on the underworld.

They are the bridge between the open world and the underworld and form a protective

sheath between the two. This position places them in a pivotal role vis a vis crime

syndicate survives without the active backing of the police. The support boosts their

confidence and gives strength to their criminal activities. The police get a farthing share

in the res gestae as the quid pro quo many times over their salary. Police being hand in

glove with the underworld, is a secret known to all.

UNDERWORLD DYNAMICS

Underworld indulges in extortions, protection money rackets, running vice-dens

of gambling, prostitution, cabret, bars, massage parlours etc, indulging in crimes like
smuggling, drug peddling, adulteration of petroleum products, land grabbing, arms

shipments, hawala transactions, forgeries in securities, extra-judicial settlement of

disputes under threats, production and sale of apocryphal products, kidnappings for

ransom and other tricks of making quick money in violation of the rules of the country.

Three facts that keep underworld operations distinct are their secrecy, their antinational

and antisocial nature and their ability to generate huge money in a short duration. These

operations are large scale illegal enterprises run as a teamwork in secrecy and ergo the

need to keep a band of loyal and committed followers. The operations involve risks at

every step. Law enforcing agencies and rival organisations are heels to undermine their

goals. As a result, members of the underworld are liberally rewarded for their work and

loyalty and their families are protected and looked after for life in case of the bread-

winner being killed or jailed. Similarly, disloyalty is met with immediate lynching.

UNDESIRABLE AXIS

Though silence and secrecy are cardinal in underworld operations to help evade

proofs and the arms of law, the activities at that scale can hardly go unnoticed by

professionals like police. Underworld knows it. It has the option of taking on the

fighting the might of the state represented by the police or keeping it contented and in

good humour. Being clever and astute businessmen as they are and huge profits at stake,

the underworld opts for cooperation in sharing a farthing fraction of its res gestae with

enforcing agencies like the police. Police conducts prearranged raids under publicity

blitz to straighten records once in a way. Here also cases fall through in silence as a rule
in courts. In cases of genuine raids by greenhorns, underworld fautors are alerted in

advance ab intra. The backing underworld receives from the police constitutes its spine

in pursuing more and more daring and dangerous schemes.

LUCRI CAUSA

More often than not, who is who in the underworld and who is behind what is a

public knowledge. The underworld operates on the knowledge that mere knowledge does

not constitute evidence in court of law. All cares are taken to cover anything that

constitutes valid evidence to crimes committed. Cut-outs is the technique. Silence and

secrecy is the method. Heads of crime syndicates operate with remote control. Contract

killers are made use. Hi-tech communication systems come to them before it reaches

police. Dons guide operations from foreign countries inimical and having no extradition

treaty with the host country a la Dawood Ibrahim holed up in Karachi with his many

lieutenants operating from Gulf and Far-East countries. An epinosic outcome of mafioso

operating from inimical foreign countries and joining hands with its governments is the

misuse of the former’s criminal networks for subversive activities in the host country.

The ISI of Pakistan used Dawood Ibrahim in the serial bomb blasts of 1993 in Bombay.

The don continues to be at large. His various factions continue to operate in Bombay and

other cities of India sans souce. This is while their subversive activities like the serial

bomb blasts in Bombay resemble an undeclared war and seriously sabotaged the security

and peace of the country! The factions continue to operate with great abandon in their

traditional strongholds like Bombay and spread to other major cities like Bangalore sans
a trace of remorse. Reason lies in the enormous money the underworld generates and

spends. It is public knowledge that top politicians of the country from different political

parties including a former central minister were investigated and tried for harbouring

associates of Dawood Ibrahim. This is only iceberg. India has chief ministers having

close links with the underworld. Many rose to powerful positions with the money and

muscle of the underworld. Quid pro quo naturally follows. Underworld has become a

highly lucrative business in India.

GLAMOUR

Plush money and wealth make underworld a fastuous world. Members of the

underworld are seen in finest dresses, driving costliest cars, frequenting best five star

hotels and living in beautiful bungalows in best localities of the town. Their ostentatious

and comfortable life-style, indulgences in sex and scandals, outrageous adventures etc.

tend to fool the hoi polloi to remanticise the underworld. The underworld itself uses

masterly propaganda to boost its image in the public eyes. Series of popular films

extolling the virtues and lives of mafia dons as heroes being churned out from Bollywood

is a common knowledge. Indian filmworld in the taut prise of the easy funds from the

underworld help the latter to manipulate the filmworld to its advantage. In the ensuing

publicity blitz, guillible public forget that the underworld is a pack of hors la loi

indulging in antinational and antisocial activities. The underworld knows the utility of

the sympathies of the public. It uses every trick in the book to win over an own
following.The Arun Gawli phenomenon in Bombay as an instant political leader and the

ascendancy of his Akhila Bharatiya Sena is an extreme manifestation of such a process.

EXPANSION

Underworld tries to gain a foot –hold wherever there is enormous and instant easy

money. It does everything to grow, spread and ultimately take over that. It be hotel

business, land deals, film production of construction business, underworld steals a share

either as protection money or returns of direct investment. When construction business

dried of plush money, underworld turned to the film world in a big way with its easy

funds at disposal for investments in the field. Recent series of murders in the filmworld

in Bombay and Bangalore are results of the involvement of mafia in film business.

DANGEROUS GROWTH

The most dangerous trend of recent underworld phenomenon in India is the rise of

a supreme don and his unlimited powers posing threat to the peace and security of the

country. More so, while he is holed up in an inimical foreign country and guiding

operations in India by remote control. Various factions of Dawood Ibrahim are creating

havoc in Bombay. They are now looking outside to grow. Bangalore saw myriad

gangwars and murders in recent past as a consequence . Police knew everything and

noticed every move. Underworld takes care to keep key figures in police on the right

side before forcing into a new region. Bangalore underworld resisted Bombay
underworld invading Bangalore. The result was gangwars and murders. Police was

vertically split ab intra between the two gangs. Plans of attacks on rivals were plotted in

posh hotels and bars and murders were committed in daylight. In spite of the knowledge

of the plots and plans, police come to picture after the commission of the crimes. In a

recent instance, a key mafioso arrested was taken to a district headquarters for further

investigation. The gangster disappeared from the toilet of a restaurant while police

officers having his custody were sipping tea in the restaurant. Such a fredaine is not

possible without the active backing and cooperation of the police. In another instant in

the same city, a police team sent from the state capital to apprehend a budding mafia don,

entered the place where the gangster was hiding. The gangster was waitiing for his friend

in a car outside while the team arrived. A senior member of the police team came

directly to the car and informed the ganster to leave the place immediately as they had

come to arrest him. The ganster immediately drove away from the place. The police

team formally conducted search of the place and reported back that the gangster was not

traced there. This is species of what happens in most actions against mafioso and the

underworld. In most gangwars and murders, friendly police officers from the spot of

crime are taken into confidence and informed in advance about the impending plans by

the underworld to keep ground ready in their favour. This is the scenario of the axis

between the police and the underworld.

Underworld can be brought on knees only by breaking the axis between them and

the police. While gangsers are the visible body of the underworld, police is its spine.

Underworld cannot stand up without the backing of the police. The axis between the two
is based on the money and muscle power of the underworld generated by massive

illegalities. Underworld is flanked by the laws operating against it on one side and

enormous money and muscle power working in its favour on the other. Though police

has the responsibility to side with the law, it finds the money on the other side more

attractive and desirable. Ergo, the vicious axis between the police and the underworld.

This is the crux of the problem of policing the underworld. The problem needs

committed police doing professional policing that is nonexistent in extant India. The

country is caught in a 22-catch situation. Any attempt to handle the problem of the

underworld must begin with the police. Until it is done, underworld is bound to grow

from strength to strength to eat up the vitals of the country and render it hollow

democratically.