VIKAS DUBEY AND HIS FIEFDOM

Thanks to the drive by the National Crime Records Bureau to collect district-wise data on crime, India has some idea of the pattern of crime at the level of districts, though the data is available only for cognizable offences — an offence in which a police officer has the authority to make an arrest without a warrant and to start an investigation with or without the permission of a court.

In 2018, Kanpur Dehat — where gangster Vikas Dubey ( inset) , killed during a police “encounter” on Friday, a day after his arrest, ruled the roost — was an unremarkable place. It was not safe for women — the data shows crimes against women, especially kidnapping and abduction (215 cases) — were disproportionately high. There were also 134 cases of assault on women, besides 25 rape and 11 attempt to rape cases. However, there was no case of sedition, crime against the state, and trafficking of women. The district reported 81 cases of rioting but none was communal, sectarian or caste-related. As many as 69 cases of rioting were related to land disputes; 10 were family-related. The rest were for ‘promoting enmity’, suggesting different factions of Dubey’s group clashed with each other.

There were 54 cases of burglary, all at night, and 181 cases of theft. There is no case of counterfeiting, but 105 of cheating and fraud, mostly under section 420 of the IPC. No ATM or bank features on this list. Though Dubey was politically active, the district has not reported a single case of electoral malpractice.

As many as 402 cases of criminal intimidation suggest this to be the modus operandi of crime in Kanpur Dehat. Now that Dubey is dead and his gang is virtually wiped out, it will be interesting to see the crime trajectory of this district.