JOIN USArea domination operation now all over City
‘Area Domination’, a unique operation that aims to prevent petty crimes conducted by the East Division police, will be expanded all over the City in the coming days.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting chaired by City Police Commissioner M N Reddi on Tuesday.
“Police Commissioner M N Reddi took stock of the crime situation. He appreciated the Area Domination Operation (ADO) as it has checked the increasing crimes successfully and decided to expand the same all over the City,” Additional Commissioner of (Law and Order-East) P Harishekharan, who conceived and implemented the operation, told Deccan Herald.
The East Division police have so far conducted two ADOs and the third one the is planned on May 15.
The second ADO was conducted on Tuesday at B Narayanapura, Bagalur Layout, PSK Naidu Road in Pulikeshinagar, Jakkur, Bhadrappa Layout in Kodigehalli, Bhairasandra tank bund area in Tilak Nagar.
A total of 172 criminals, including 83 rowdies, 44 criminals specialised in committing offences in a particular style, 19 bad characters and 26 suspicious elements, were taken into custody. They were warned against continuing offences and meetings were held with their family members. Later, they were let off, the police said.
Harishekharan claimed that chain snatching incidents have come down by 50 per cent, while other crimes such as robbery and vehicle thefts by 25 percent ever since the ADO was implemented in the East Division. “We hope to reduce the crime graph further,” he said.
The police claimed that drainages, abandoned structures, graveyards and bushes in slums acted as breeding sources for criminal activities.
“Rowdies and criminals assemble at these places and hatch conspiracies. They chose such locations in slums as nobody raided them in the last 25 years. Hence, we decided to raid such places and conduct physical verification of rowdies and criminals,” Harishekharan added.
‘Slum dwellers targeted’
However, there have been complaints that the police are targetting only slum dwellers, but have failed to take action against criminals and rowdies in middle and upper classes.
When asked about the charges, Harishekharan said they act according the law. He termed ADO as an educative programme and said: “We held meetings with family members of these persons and told them about the consequences of criminal activities.
We also told them that the family members can play a role in reforming (them).”