48 Pardi robbers from Guna held
Tribune News Service

PATIALA, Sept 2 — A criminal tribe — Pardis — belonging to Guna district of Madhya Pradesh has been held responsible for the recent spate of robberies in Patiala and other districts of the state.

Six such gangs have been busted by the Patiala police. In a major breakthrough 48 members of these gangs, including their two kingpins, have been arrested.

Addressing a Press conference, here the state police chief, Mr P.C. Dogra, said the Pardis, who had shifted their area of operation to the northern states, recently, had initially made Delhi their base. Mr Dogra said, however, the Pardis moved over to Punjab when the Delhi police made going tough for them. They would operate as balloon sellers, herb sellers, beggars and 'madaris'.

The police chief said they attack their victims with iron rods and other blunt edged weapons.

Mr Dogra said the gangs had been busted following a special operation conducted under the supervision of the Patiala range DIG, Mr Rajinder Singh, and the SSP, Mr Parampal Singh Sidhu. He said with these arrests 150 cases of robberies and thefts in Punjab and neighbouring states had been worked out. He said ornaments and valuables worth Rs 10 lakh had been recovered from the gangs.

The DGP said two of the kingpins were first arrested after a tip off that 12 members of the tribe were moving about in suspicious circumstances in the outskirts of the city. Kingpins Sheru and Chamka disclosed that many Pardis were hiding in the state. Mr Dogra said following their statement the Patiala police arrested eight Pardis belonging to the Antra gang from Anandpur Sahib. Eight members of the Rattian gang were arrested from Morinda railway station and seven members from Panchkula. He said among the arrested were five women.

Members of these gangs committed robberies in their under-garments. They carried improvised tools for removing grills and locks and weapons of assault like as iron rods and hammers. He said the valuable ornaments were handed over to the women folk who put those in "ghagaries" (improvised pouches).

The police chief said the gangs usually struck at the dead of night and spent most of their day roaming in residential areas as balloon-sellers, beggars and 'madaris'. He said the tribesmen usually lived in railway sheds.

Mr Dogra said apart from Pardis other criminal tribes such as Bawarias, Sansis, Kanjars, Boreas and Bhangalas were also quite active in many states, including Punjab. He said a comprehensive strategy was being worked out to counter the activities of gangs of criminal tribes.

Mr Dogra also promoted the team which was responsible for the busting the tribal gangs. Sub-Inspector Jaswinder Singh Mangat has been promoted as Inspector, Assistant Sub-Inspectors Satpal Bajwa and Gurpreet Singh become Sub-Inspectors and four other constables have been promoted as head constables.