Moon Gazer continues……

The Guna Police planned to raid their hideout, but the felons got wind of the impending raid and ran away. However, their associates Tataria and Babla were arrested. Sometime later, another informer spotted Jodham Singh, alias Dadaniya, in Varanasi and tipped off the Guna Police. A joint police party comprising policemen from the Guna and Varanasi police forces arrested Jodhan Singh near the Adampur police station in Varanasi. When the SP of Guna informed me of Singh’s arrest, I was over the moon and greatly relieved. SI Ishwar Singh, who, like me, had moved to the Crime Branch from the south district, was deputed to take custody of Jodhan Singh from the Varanasi Police and bring him to Delhi. The Crime Branch party arrived in Delhi with the rearrested gangster on 25 August 1992.

 Jodhan’s rearrest made headlines in Delhi newspapers. The local media, which had sensationalized the escape, was impressed by our efforts, made in tandem with the Guna and Varanasi police, to trace the escapee. Interrogating Jodhan gave us vital clues on the likely whereabouts of his associate Bharose. Soon, in a joint raid conducted by the Crime Branch and the south district police, Bharose was also apprehended from the jurisdiction of Bari Bareilly in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, thereby restoring the lost prestige of the Delhi Police.

 Jodhan Singh and his gang were tried and convicted in the cases against them. Investigations had revealed that hundreds of their clansmen were operating all over the country, though not all of them were as senselessly violent as the gang headed by Singh.

This was a unique investigation as studying the customs, modus operandi, history and social mores of the tribe to which this group of criminals belonged led to the breakthrough in the heinous cases. It is not often that such an approach is adopted to solve a crime.

To be continued…….