RAJGARH :
DOTTED with palatial bungalows and sprawling campuses, a cluster of three villages stands out as an outlier in Madhya Pradesh’s
Rajgarh district on economic prosperity. Just that it is
powered by activities on the
wrong side of the law.
The recent theft of valuables worth Rs 1.45 crore by
a 14-year-old boy during a
wedding at a five-star hotel
in Rajasthan capital Jaipur
brought these villages –
Kadiya Sansi, Gulkhedi and
Hulkhedi – into prominence
on the national crime map.
The local police estimate
that 1,000-1,200 criminal
cases have been registered
across the country against
boys, men, girls and women
from these villages. With a
population of about 5,000,
Kadiya Sansi is the epicentre of the illegal activities.
But, it’s not easy for
enforcement agencies to
make arrests here. A police
team from Tamil Nadu’s
Coimbatore, under security
cover of the local cops, was
attacked in Gulkhedi, under
Boda police station, during
one such attempt on August
10.
“Local cases are few but the
people of these villages, especially Kadiya Sansi, face criminal cases in different parts
of the country. We learn
about those only when outside police contact us. There
must be 1,000-1,200 cases
registered against these people across India,” Boda police
station in-charge Ramkumar
Bhagat told PTI.
Bhagat said that the lure
of easy money drives the residents of these three villages,
about 50 km from district
headquarters, to break the
law. “They get easy money
through loot, theft and other crimes. They appear to
inspire one another. Since
most of these people are
associated with it (crimes),
there is no one to stop it.
Women are more expert in
this field than men,” he said.
Bhagat said that a local
police team was also
attacked with stones when
it accompanied their counterparts from Tamil Nadu to
find out about the accused
in a crime committed in
Coimbatore.
A search is
underway to track down
those who hurled stones at
the police team, he
said.Asked about reports that
outsiders are also being
trained at Kadiya Sansi village for stealing, theft and
other criminal activities,
Bhagat claimed ignorance,
saying the people from this
village cluster carry out recce before committing crimes.
However, this is not the
first time a police team has
come under attack in these
villages, also notorious for
illegal liquor trading Mohan Singh, sarpanch of
Kadiya Sansi village, claimed
that the people are well educated and work in different
jobs in major cities.
“There may be some people who could be involved
in such incidents. But the
people here are well educated and 2-3 persons from
every household work in big
cities. Our children are studying in good private schools,”
Singh told PTI over the
phone. The village head
rejected the reports about
the area being a breeding
ground for criminal activities.
There is no truth in those
reports, he said.
Singh also denied the
reports about “training”
being given by the people of
these villages to children to
make them experts in committing crimes.