The year 2020 was spent fighting Covid-19 and the various challenges brought about by the pandemic. While the medical fraternity worked overtime to save lives, police, too, had their hands full. It was a particularly eventful year for the Central Crime Branch (CCB), the Bengaluru police’s elite wing. Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), opens up on the CCB’s workings and the challenges that lie ahead:
High-profile cases, a crackdown on rowdy elements and drug peddlers, the CCB was in the thick of the things in the past year. Is the CCB a high-pressure zone of the city police?
Pressure zone? There is hardly any area that’s without pressure. At the CCB, we are only doing our job of curbing illegal activities and keeping citizens safe. Whenever we get tips or complaints, we do an investigation to check criminal activities. Many people come to us with grievances and we act accordingly. If some of these issues can be handled by local police stations, we refer them there. There is absolutely no pressure on any of us.
The nature of criminal activities in and around Bengaluru has drastically changed in the past few years. What challenges do you foresee for the CCB?
All crimes, especially heinous ones, have always been a challenge. Cybercrimes have literally kept us on our toes. From big corporations to common people, everyone is becoming the target of cyber fraudsters. Solving these crimes is a challenge because there’s no human interference in them. We are improving our skills to crack these cases. But we also pursue regular crimes such as chain-snatchings, robberies and rowdyism with the same intensity. In 2020 alone, our recovery rate was 89%. Out of 370 robberies, we detected 305 cases. Of 152 chain-snatchings, we cracked 136.
Financial frauds are the latest entry to the city’s crime graph. There are moneylenders who charge exorbitant interest rates and use weapons to recover dues. How will you go after them?
The CCB is going after all illegal moneylending agencies or persons. Whenever such fraudulent activities were brought to our notice, we acted tough. Many big financial crimes start with local gambling, betting or chit funds. This is precisely why the CCB has been cracking down on betting gangs and those operating through tech-enabled networks. We regularly warn registered history-sheeters.
Do you think the CCB has enough trained people to tackle cyber frauds?
All our CEN (Cyber, Economic and Narcotics) police stations have skilled staff who have received three levels of training and are also sent for refresher programmes every now and then. CID experts and IIT graduates have been voluntarily helping us in training and technology-related issues. The state government has been meeting our infrastructural requirements.
Besides robbery and extortion, rowdies seem to have moved on to new-age crimes such as real estate frauds and land grabs. Has the CCB worked any plan to check them?
Yes, that’s the latest activity of many rowdy elements. We have bifurcated our anti-rowdy squad into East and West Bengaluru. While we do not have the powers to deal with civil matters, we will not hesitate from going after rowdies if they are involved in such activities. During the lockdown, we couldn’t monitor rowdy activities as well as we should have. But now, we have increased vigilance and intelligence-gathering. In 2020 alone, we registered 26 cases against rowdies under the Goonda Act.
No matter how much you crack down on drug peddlers, they seem to be operating regularly. Is it tough to eliminate the drug mafia in Bengaluru?
We have been very serious about the drug mafia in the last two years and it has had some impact in Bengaluru. I agree it has not yet been fully eliminated but our work to make the city drug-free continues. We have largely tracked down the drug distribution network which operated through the dark web. Police alone cannot end this menace and need the support of students, organisations and parents.
Amid all this work, the CCB has been termed the ‘Cash Collection Bureau’ as many officers face allegations of bribery. What do you have to say?
Just smiles.