RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54

ORGANISED CRIME IN INDIA: PROBLEMS& PERSPECTIVES
Madan Lal Sharma*
I. INDIA THE LAND AND PEOPLE
India is one of the oldest civilisations
with a kaleidoscopic variety and richcultural heritage. It covers an area of 32.
87,263 sq. kms extending from the snow
covered Himalayan heights to the tropicalrain forests of the south. As the seventh
largest country in the world, India is wellmarked off from the rest of Asia by
mountains and the sea, which give thecountry a distinct geographical entity. It
has a land frontier of 15,200 kms and acoast line of 7,516 kms. In 1996, India’s
population was 931.9 million. Apart fromEnglish and Hindi, India has 17 otherofficial languages recognised by theConstitution.
India is a Union of States and isgoverned by a written Constitution whichcame into force on 26th November, 1949.
It consists of 25 States and 7 Union
Territories. Due to its colonial heritage,
India follows the Anglo-Saxon common law
system. Article 14 of the Constitution
provides for equality before the law. Article
21 guarantees protection of life andpersonal liberty. Article 20 provides
protection against double jeopardy. Article
39-A mandates the State to secure equaljustice for all. Article 50 provides forseparation of the judiciary from theexecutive in the public services of the State.
‘The Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are in theState List but the ‘Criminal Laws’ and‘Criminal Procedure’ are in the Concurrent
List. Resultantly, the basic criminal
statutes, namely, India Penal Code, 1860;
Criminal Procedure Code, 1973; Indian* Joint Director, Central Bureau of Investigation,
India.

82

Evidence Act, 1872; Indian Police Act,1861and several others have been enacted by
the national Parliament. The States also
have limited authority to legislate on thesubjects falling in the State List. The
Police, being a State subject, is raised andmaintained by the State Government. EachState and Union Territory has a separate
police force. Thus, registration of crime,
investigation and finalisation thereof is the
mandate of the State Police. In addition to
the State Police Force, the Central
Government has set up certain Central
Investigating Agencies, including theCentral Bureau of Investigation (CBI). CBI
was set up under the Delhi Special Police
Establishment Act, 1946. It has concurrent
jurisdiction in the investigative field in theUnion Territories. It can also take up
investigation of cases falling within thejurisdiction of the States under the ordersof the Central Government, but only withthe prior consent of the State Governments
concerned. In addition, the Central
Government has constituted certain otherinvestigating agencies, namely, theNarcotics Control Bureau, theEnforcement Directorate, the Central
Board of Direct Taxes and the Central
Board of Customs and Excise. These
agencies investigate criminal cases fallingin the ambit of special statutes being
administered by them and are empoweredto launch prosecutions. The CBI, however,is the premier investigating agency of theCentral Government and has an omnibus
charter.
II. CRIME SCENARIO IN INDIA
Before I come to the subject of organised
crime proper, it would be useful to have

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS
some idea about the general crime situation
prevailing in the country. India, the landof Lord Budha and Mahatma Gandhi, is
growing into a violent society. The violent
crimes that constituted only 8.2 per centof the total crimes registered under Indian
Penal Code (IPC) in 1953 increased to
14.4% in 1994. Gulshan Kumar, a Bombay
music magnate with Rs. 800 crore empire,
was shot dead last year as he refused to
pay a large sum of money demanded by
Dawood Ibrahim gang. This was precededby killings of several Bombay industrialists
and politicialns. 48 persons in 1995 and 71
persons in 1996 were lynched in West
Bengal by the public. 61 Harijan were
killed in Jehanabad District (Bihar) incaste based violence last month. The casteand communal strife claimed 511 lives in
1997,with 3701 injured. The kidnappings
for ransom of rich industrialists,businessmen, top professionals and theirwards are lucrative for the criminal groups
in the metropolitan cities. Delhi witnessed
40 such incidents in 1994; 43 in1995 and23 in 1996. Brutal attacks by the domestic

servants of lonely housewives and oldcouples for looting are a recurring
phenomenon in Delhi. A Benaras
businessman was kidnapped by a gangheaded by a Member of State Legislatureand even after extortion of a huge ransom,
he was killed lest he approach the police
and reveal the gang’s identity. Terrorist
crimes have also taken their toll in termsof human casualties and damage to public
property. 308 bomb explosions in 1997 left
197 people dead and 1109 injured. Delhi
city alone witnessed 26 such incidents lastyear. The crime scenario is, thus, rather
grim.
Table I shows the incidence and the rateof cognizable crimes under IPC and Specialand Local Laws (SLL) from 1986 to 1996:
IPC crime, in absolute number, remained
at about 1.6 million since 1990 but the SLL
crime is increasing rapidly. In 1996, IPC
crime constituted 27.1% of the total crime
registered. Over the decade 1986-96, theIPC crime increased by 19.2% but the SLL
crime increased by 39.8%. However, thelesser increase in the IPC crime does not

TABLE IINCIDENCE AND RATE OF COGNIZABLE CRIMES UNDER IPC AND SLLFROM 1986-1996 (IN LACS)
YEAR
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996

IPC
14.05
14.06
14.4
15.2
16.04
16.7
16.8
16.2
16.3
16.8
16.7

INCIDENCE
SLL
29.8
35.8
37.6
38.4
32.9
33.7
35.5
38.03
32.8
42.6
44.6

TOTAL
43.9
49.9
52.06
53.7
48.9
50.4
52.4
54.3
49.2
59.4
…61.4

IPC
183.5
180.1
180.8
188.5
194
197.5
194.7
184.4
181.7
184.2
179.8

RATE**
SLL
389.6
459.3
472.7
474.0
398.3
396.8
410.1
430.4
365.6
465.3
479.1

TOTAL
573.1
639.4
653.5
662.4
592.3
594.3
604.8
614.8
547.3
469.6
458.9

*A lac=1,00,000.
**Crime per 1,00,000 of population

83

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
appear to truely reflect the intensity,
gruesomeness and social impact of violent
and organised crime.
In this context, it is be useful to look at
the incidence of IPC crimes under major
crime heads as shown in Table II. There
has been 44.3% increase in murders in1995 over 1985. The incidence of rape has
increased by 88.7% over this period.
Similarly, kidnapping and abduction has
increased by 27.3%. However, the dacoity
shows decrease of 25.9%. While robberyshows a negligible decrease over the thedecade, there is about 11% decrease inburglary and theft cases and 3.2% in riot
cases. The incidence of currency
counterfeiting increased by 46.5% over thisperiod. Overall IPC crimes showed anincrease of 22.5% over the decade.
In 1993, the crime rate in murderoffences in India was 4.32 which is lower
than that of Canada (5.63) but higher thanthat of Bangladesh (1.99), China (1.95),
Hong Kong (1.55), Indonesia (0.84), Japan(0.99), Nepal (2.32) and Singapore (2.02).
The crime rate in theft and dacoity cases

was 1.05 in India. It is much lower thanthat of Bangladesh (7.29), Hong Kong
(390.86), Indonesia (28.39), Japan (205.97)
and Singapore (146.18). In India, the crime
rate in burglary offences was 13.91 which
is much lower than most of the countriesof the region. The crime rate in rape
offences was 1.38 which is lower than thatof China (3.62), Hong Kong (1.74) andSingapore (2.75) but higher than that ofJapan (1.29), Nepal (0.98), Indonesia (0.71)
and Bangladesh (0.44).
It is pertinent to mention that crime
under the special and Local Laws (SLL)
constitutes over two-thirds of the totalcognizable crime in India (IPC crime
constituting less than one-third).
Table V shows the incidence of SLL
crime. About 4.29 million SLL cases wereregistered in 1995. There was 38.8%
increase in SLL in 1985. Registration underthe Arms Act has shown a marginalincrease of 3.8% over the decade. However,there was increase of 41.4% under the
NDPS Act. Suprisingly, registration under
the Gambling Act, declined by 23.2 per cent

TABLE IIINCIDENCE OF IPC CRIMES UNDER MAJOR CRIME HEADSCrime Head
MurderAttempt tomurderRape
Kidnapping& abduction
Dacoity
Robbery
Burglary
Theft
Riots
Counterfeiting
OTHER IPCCRIMESTOTAL:

84

1985
25970
-

1991
39174
29778

1992
40105
31202

1993
38240
29725

1994
38577
30020

1995
67464
29571

7289
16051

10410
20079

11708
20518

12218
19830

13508
20983

16754
20426

11254
22501
13035433055499757
1504
69606910831
26428
13208736282
1053094467
88628711308
26444
1272813505821047495133
9070719357
24354
12302032043493838
3728
9030829271
23933
12153630356494344
2851
9243428335
22443
11650729430696520
2203
72258313847311678375

1689341

162993616352511695696

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERSTABLE III
INCIDENCE OF SLL CRIME UNDER MAJOR HEADSCRIME HEADSARMS ACTNDPS ACTGAMBLING
ACT
EXCISE ACTPROHIBITIONACTEXPLOSIVESACTIMMORAL
TRAFFIC ACTANTIQUITY&ART TREASURE
ACTOTHER SLLCRIMESTOTAL:

1985
61987
14277
179419

1991
62025
20944
167113

1992
63893
99478
167193

1993
65532
21087
162800

1994
60289
20304
156926

1995
64331
20194
137737106183106183

95863
95863

95108
95108

96578
96578

102096102096114355114355

3373

5458

8899

6163

4641

5113

14815

14639

12580

12496

10132

8447

10

40

18

66

69

-

232712922844958 2401039

251325127932253232633

309648137735633808448

3286384267476but, registration under the Prohibition
policy being pursued by the States like
Haryama and Gujarat, creating a fertile
ground for organised boot-legging. Crime
under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act
decreased by 43% which is rather
surprising.
A. Convivtion Rate
To secure high conviction rates is not theoverall objective of the criminal justicesystem in any country. Even so, conviction
rate is one of the main indices of its efficacy.
Table IV shows the percentage of IPC trials
completed in the courts and the percentage
of cases convicted.

3350971

TABLE IVDISPOSAL OF IPC CRIMES IN THE
COURTS (PERCENTAGE)
YEAR
1961
1971
1981
1991
1993
1994
1995

TRIAL COMPLETED CONVICTION
30.3
64.8
32.0
62.0
23.9
52.5
16.8
47.8
16.7
45.9
15.5
42.9
15.1
42.1

The percntage of trials completed in agiven year is going down steadily. While
about 30% trials were completed in 1961
and 1971, the percentage came down to
23.9 in 1981 and 16.8 in 1991. The
percentage has further come down to only
15.1 in 1995. Crime head-wise, conviction
rate in IPC crime is shown in Table V.

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
TABLE VPERCENTAGE OF CONVICTIONSUNDER MAJOR CRIME HEADS IN 1995
CRIME HEAD
Muder
Attempt to Murder
Rape
Kidnapping & Abduction
Dacoity
Robbery
Burglary
Theft
Hurt
Sexual Harassment
Other IPC crime
TOTAL IPC CRIME% OF
CONVICTION
37.0
36.0
30.0
30.3
27.3
34.1
42.7
45.7
38.4
73.1
45.9
42.1

About one-third of the IPC crime areconvicted by the trial courts, with the
exception of sexual harassment cases
wherein the conviction rate is quite high.
This dose not compare favourably withmost other nations, including UK, USA,
Japan, France and China. However, unlike
IPC crimes, the conviction rate is muchhigher in non-IPC (i.e SLL crimes). Table
VI shows the conviction rate under major
crime heads.
TABLE VICONVICTION PERCENTAGE IN SLLCRIMES IN 1995
CRIME HEADPERCENTAGE
Arms Act
59.6
NDPS Act
48.8
Gambling Act
82.9
Excise Act
74.3
Prohibition Act
69.1
Explosives Act
48.2
Immoral Traffic(P) Act
89.7
Indian Railway Act
96.7
Indian Passport Act
69.9
Forest Act
61.6
Other SLL Crimes
90.4
Total SLL Crimes
85.8

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The cases instituted under the Arms Act,NDPS Act and Explosives Act are
essentially recovery based. The Police
recovers the contraband or illicit arms
explosives from the possession or premisesof the accused, filing the charge sheet.
Almost 50% are acquittals in narcotic drugs
related cases; which is mainly due to nonobservance of statutory and procedural
requirements by the investigating officers.
This is rather disturbing and calls forproper training of officers and streamliningof systems and procedures.
B. Pace of Trial
The accused has a right of speedy trial
as per the tenets of natural justice. Such aright is inherent in Art. 21 of ourConstitution. However, the reality isdifferent. In the end of 1995, 7.12 million
cases- 4.12 million under IPC and 3.0
million under SLL- were pending trial. Of
the IPC crimes, 0.77 million were pending
trial for more than 8 years. Thus, 18.6%
cases were pending trial over 8 years. It is
common ground that delayed trials violate
natural justice and are also prejudicial tothe interests of the prosecution.
No data for the average time taken intrials is available on an all-India basis.
However, according to a study conductedby S.Venugopal Rao, a distinguished police
officer, in regard to 16 police stations inAndhra Pradesh State, the average time
taken for trial is 15 months in convicted
cases of murder and 28 months in acquittal
cases. In rape cases, it is 21 and 9 months
respectively. In burglarly cases, it is 3 and6 months but in robbery cases the time
taken is 1 month and 21 months
respectively 7.
The study generally shows that the
average time taken in trials is much higher
when compared to countries like Japan,
where the average time taken is only about
3 months. It is also higher compared to
Korea, UK and USA. This is one of the main
contributory factors to the low convictionrate.

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS
III. ORGANISED CRIME-TOWARDS
A CONCEPTThe core organised crime activity is the
supply of illegal goods and services tocountless numbers of citizen customers. It
is also deeply involved in legitimate
business and in labour unions. It employs
illegitimate methods-monopolisation,
terrorism, extorition and tax-evasion todrive out or control lawful ownership andleadership, and to extract illegal profits
from the public. Organised crime also
corrupts public officials to avert
governmental interference 8 and isbecoming increasingly sophisticated. In
India, in addition to its traditional spheresof activities which included extortion,seeking protection money, contract killing,boot-legging, gambling, prostitution andsmuggling, now added is drug trafficking,illicit arms trading, money laundering,transporting illegitimate activities based
essentially on its readiness to use brute
force and violence. By corrupting public
officials and thereby monopolising or near
monopolising, organised crime aims tosecure for itself power. Later, the money
and power it begets are used to infiltratelegitimate business and several otherrelated activities.9 The recent experiencehas shown that it attempts to subvert andcorrupt our democratic processes.
Involvement of Bombay based criminal
syndicates in the serial bomb blast in 1993,
and the contract killings of several
important social and political leaders in
Bombay, indicates that organised crime inthis part of the country is emerging as aserious challenge to the State. The destabilising effect that organised crime hason the country’s economy, trade andcommerce can hardly be over-emphasised.
Organised crime continues to grow at a
disconcerting speed as the existing laws
and procedures are not powerful enoughto help the law enforcement agencies tocollect adequate evidence to bring criminal

charges and try other remedies againstorganised criminal syndicates as a whole
and thereby incapacitate them fromcarrying out their nefarious activities.
Since the real strength of organised crimelies in its money power with which it buys
political power, it is imperative to destroy
its money power base.
Organised crime is not confined to theboundaries of any one country and has
become a transnational problem. This isevidenced in the fields of drug trafficking,money-laundering, terrorism, gun-runningand illegal immigration rackets. Moreover,advances in science and technology enable
members of organised criminal groups tooperate with high mobility andsophistication, thereby aggravating thealready grim situation.
Organised crime has been studied in
depth in USA since the beginning of thiscentury. The Kefauver Committee (1951)
concluded that there was a nation-wide net
work of criminal syndicates in the USA,fundamentally based on ‘muscle’ and‘murder’ indiscriminately used in runningtheir criminal enterprises.10
The U.S Task Force Report, 196711 , aptly
describes the scourge in the following
words:“Organised crime is a society that seeks
to operate outside the control of theAmerican people and their government.
It involves thousands of criminals
working within structures as complex as
those of any large corporation, subject tolaws more tightly enforced than those of
legitimate governments. Its actions are
not impulsive but rather the result of
intricate conspiracies, carried on overmany years and aimed at gaining control
over whole fields of activity in order toamass huge profits”.
In 1968, the US Congress enacted the
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe StreetsAct. According to it :“Organised crime includes the unlawful
activities of the members of a highly

87

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
organised, disciplined association
engaged in supplying illegal goods andservices, including but not limited togambling, prostitution, loan sharking,narcotics, labour racketeering and otherunlawful activities of such associations”.
This language reflects both a growing
knowledge of the extent and diverse natureof organised crime and a conscious effort
to avoid restrictive definition that might
limit application of the statute.
The 1976 Task Force on Organised
Crime of the National Advisor Committee
on Criminal Justice Standard and Goals
did not endeavour to define organised crime
but proposed a description that attempted
to explain the nature of organised criminal
activity. It listed seven characteristics oforganised crime. It, inter alia, observedthat organised crime is a conspiratorial
crime, having profit as its primary goal 12 .
The Organised Crime Control Act, 1970,
strengthened the existing laws in several
respects in that it, inter alia, provided
immunity to an organised crime witness
and prescribed testimonial compulsion of
the witness. It also criminalised use ofmoney generated by the racketeering
activity and prescribed longer jail terms13.
The preamble of the Act captures thenature and magnitude of the threat posedby organised crime to the society14 :“Organised crime in the US is a highlysophisticated, diversified and widespread activity that annually drains
billions of dollars from America’s
economy by unlawful conduct and illegal
use of force, fraud and corruption;organised crime derives a major portionof its power through money obtained
from such illegal endeavours assyndicated gambling, loan sharking, thetheft and fencing of property, theimportation and distribution of narcotics
and other dangerous drugs, and otherforms of social exploitation; this money
and power are increasingly used toinfiltrate and corrupt our democratic

88

processes; organised crime activities in
the US weaken the stability of the
Nation’s sconomic system, harm innocent
investors and competing organisations,interfere with free competition, seriously
burden inter state and foreign commerce,threaten the domestic security andunderline the general welfare of a nationand its citizens”.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organisations statute (RICO-1970) has
become the centre piece of U.S federal law
proscribing organised criminal actibity.
In lieu of a definition of organised crime,
RICO defines rackteering activity:“Racketerring is an act or threati n v o l v i n g m u r d e r, k i d n a p p i n g ,gambling, arson, robbery, bribery,
extortion or dealing in narcotics or
dangerous drugs and other denominatedcrime......A pattern of racketeering
activity requires at least two acts ofracketeering activity”.
The Witness Security Reform Act, 1984,
empowers the US Attorney General tochange the identify of a witness, relocate
them and financially support them till they
become self-supporting. The witness is also
given physical protection. The US
authorities secured several convictions ofimportant mafia leaders in the 1970’s
under the deterrent laws (RICO) mainly
due to the witness protection programme.
The penal statutes of several countries,
including Italy, have criminalisedorganised crime. The Italian Penal Codedose not specifically define ‘organised
crime’ but it dose define ‘criminal
association’. According to Article 416 of the
Italian Penal Code, the criminal
association is:“When three or more persons associate
for the purpose of committing more than
one crime, who ever promotes orconstitutes or organises the assochiation,
shall be punished, for that alone, withimprisonment from 3 to 7 years”.
Japan has a special law on the

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS
Prevention of Irregularities by gangsters.
It is meant to exercise necessary control
on acts of intimidation and violence carriedout by gangsters, to protect the activities
of Civic Public Organisations and toprevent danger to the life of citizens fromgang-land war. Article 2 of the aforesaidlaw defines gangs as:“Gangs means any organisation likely tohelp its members (including members ofaffiliated organisation of the saidorganisation) to collectively andhabitually commit illegal acts ofviolence”.
The law appears to have wide canvass
as it purports to cover all types of illegal
acts of violence. The main emphasis is on
the collective and habitual commission ofillegal acts of violence of by the membersof an organisation. The Acts also provides
for designation of a gang by the Prefectural
Public Safety Commission after giving an
opportunity to be heard by such gangs andtheir members. It criminalises the act of
being a member or associate of a designatedgang. The punishment, however, is light i.e,
imprisonment up to one year.
Interpol has sought to define organised
crime as :“Any enterprise or group of persons
engaged in continuing illegal activity
which has as its primary purpose thegeneration of profits irrespective of
national boundaries”.
No definition of organised crime can beperfect and universally acceptable. The
evolution and the forms of organised crimediffer from one country to another, which
may be the result of different social,economic, historical and legal factors.
Hence, any attempt to define organised
crime has to be in the light of each country’s
experience in dealing with the problem. Let
us not restrict organised crime to Mafia
type bodies or secret societies with rigid
rules and initiation rites. This is moreromantic that what is found in practice.

IV. CHARACTERISTICS OFORGANISED CRIME
According to the Presidents Commissionon Organised Crime 1986 14 , organised
crime is the collective result of thecommitment, knowledge and actions of
three components :i) The Criminal groups;ii) The Protectors; andiii) The Specialist support.
A. Characteristics of the Criminal
Group(1) Continuity: The criminal group operates
beyond the life time of individual
members and is structured to survivechanges in leadship.
(2) Structure: The criminal group is
structured as a collection ofh i e r a r c h i c a l l y a r r a n g e d i n t e rdependent offices devoted to theaccomplishiment of a particularfunction. It may be highly structured
or may be rather fluid. It is, however,distinguishable as the ranks are basedon power and authority.
(3) Membership: The membership in thecore criminal group is restricted andbased on common traits such as
ethnicity, criminal background orcommon interests. The potential
members are subjected to a lot of
scrutiny and required to prove theirworth and loyalty to the criminal group.
The rules of membership include
secrecy, a willingness to commit any act
for the group and intent to protect thegroup. In return for loyalty, the memberof a criminal group receives economic
benefits, certain prestige, andprotection from law enforcement.
(4) Criminality: The criminal group relies
on continuing criminal activity togenerate income. Thus, continuing
criminal conspiracy is inherent inorganised crime. Some activities suchas supplying illegal goods and services

89

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
directly produce revenue, while others
including murder, intimidation andbribery contribute to the groups ability
to earn money and enhance its power.
The criminal group may be involved
both in legitimate as well as
illegitimate business activity at thesame time.
(5) Violence: Violence and the threat ofviolence are an integral part of acriminal group. The violence or threatof it is used against the members of thegroup to keep them in line as also
against the outsiders to protect theeconomic interests of the group.
Members are expected to commit,
condone or authorise violent acts.
(6) Power/Profit Goal: The members of thecriminal group aim at maximising thegroup’s profits. The political power isachieved through the corruption of
public officials, including legislatorsand political executive. The criminalgroup maintains power through its
association with the “protectors” whodefend the group and its profits.
B. Protectors
They are corrupt public officials,
attorneys and businessmen who
individually or collectively protect thecriminal group through abuses of status
and/or privilege and violation of the law.
As a result of the protector’s efforts, thecriminal group is insulated from both civil
and criminal government actions.
Corruption is the central tool of thecriminal protectors. A criminal group relies
on a network of corrupt officials to protect
the group from the criminal justice system.
C. Organised Crime Support(1) Specialist Support: Organised criminalgroups and their protectors rely onskilled individuals or support to assist
the criminal groups on an adhoc basis.
They are nonetheless considered partof organised crime. The specialists

90

include pilots, chemists, arsonists,hijackers, shooters etc.
(2) Social Support: Social support includes
public officials who solicit the supportof organised crime figures; businessleaders who do business with organised
crime figures at social gatherings andthus portray the criminal group in afavourabale or glamorous light.
My experience shows, that all theaforesaid characteristics are not apparent
in all the ciminals group in India. Futher,
the degree of these characteristics mayvary from group to group. The
quintessential element of organised crime
is continuing illegal activities forgenerating illegal profits. Conceptually, as
long as this condition is satisfied, a groupcan be termed as an organised criminalgroup. Indian experience, however, showsthat there is continuing illegal activity byorganised criminal gangs, sometimes evenin the absence of profit motive. Rigging ofelections, proventing voters from exercising
their electoral rights, preventing public
servants from the lawful discharge of theirduty, and recurrence of caste or communal
violence on a continuing basis are such
examples. In my view, it would beapporopriate to bring such crime also under
the ambit of organised crime.
V. LEGAL POSITION IN INDIA
Organised crime has always existed inIndia in some form or another. It has,
however, assumed its virulent form inmodern times due to several socio-economic
and political factors and advances inscience and technology . Even though rural
India is not immune from it, it is essentiallyan urban phenomenon. In India, there isno comprehensive law to control organised
crime in all its dimensions andmanifestations, There is, however,substantive law regarding criminal
conspiracy. There are also penal provisions

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERSin various statutes against specificviolations of those statutes.
A. Criminal Conspiracy
Sec. 120-A of the Indian Penal Codedefines criminal conspiracy as:“When two or more persons agree to do,or cause to be done(1) An illegal act, or(2) An Act which is not illegal by illegalmeans. Such an agreement isdesignated as criminal conspiracy:
provided that no agreement except anagreement to commit an offence shallamount to a criminal conspiracy unlesssome act besides the agreement is doneby one or more parties to suchagreement in pursunce thereof.
Explanation: It is immaterial whether theillegal act is the ultimate object of suchagreement, or is merely incidental tothat object”.
Section 120-B of the India Penal Codeprovides for punishiment for criminal
conspiracy. The punishment for theconspirator is the same as for the principal
offender. It may, however, be emphasisedthat the criminal conspiracy by itself is a
substantive offence. The conspiracy need
not fructify and the mere proof of thecxistance of the criminal conspiracy isadequate to have the criminal punished forsuch criminal conspiracy.
B. Dacoity and Related Offences
Dacoity is one of the oldest forms ofcrimes in India and is committed purely
for the purpose of looting or extortion.
Section 391 of the Penal Code defines
dacoity as:“When five or more persons conjointly
commit or attempt to commit a robbery,or where the whole number of persons
conjointly committing or attempting tocommit a robbery, and persons present
and aiding such commission or attempt
amount to five or more, every person so
committing, attempting or aiding is said

to commit ‘dacoity’.”In other words, if five or more persons
commit the offence of robbery, they commit‘dacoity’. Dacoity is punishable withimprisonment for life or rigorous
imprisonment up to 10 years and fivemonths (section 395). The Code also
criminalises preparation to commit dacoity(section 399) and assembly for the purposeof committing dacoity (section 402).
Importantly, section 400 of the Codecriminalies the act of belonging to a ‘gang’of
persons associated for the purpose of
habitually committing dacoities. The
punishment is quite severe and may evenextend to life imprisonment. Similarly,
section 401 criminalises the act of
belonging to a gang of thieves. It would,
thus, appear that adequate legislative tools
are available to the law enforcement
agencies to deal with gangs of dacoits andthieves, but the proof of existence of a gangin Court requires painstaking
investigation.
In view of increasing incidents ofkindnapping for ransom, the parliament
inserted Section 364-A in the India Penal
Code to provide for stingent punishment
for such offences, further strengthened in
1995. The amended Section 364-A reads
as follows:“Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person
or keeps a person in detention after suchkidnapping or abduction and threatens
to cause death or hurt to such person, orby his conduct gives rise to a reasonableapprehension that such person may be
put to death or hurt, or causes hurt ordeath to such person in order to compel
the Government or any foreign State orinternational inter-governmentalorganisation or to do or abstain fromdoing any act or to pay shall bepunishable with death, or imprisonment
for life, and shall also be liable to fine”.
C. Law on Gangsters
There is no central legislation to91

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
suppress ‘gang activity’ having countrywide applicability. The State of Uttar
Pradesha, most populous and politicallymost powerful (population : 139.1 million
in 1991), enacted Uttar Pradesh Gangsters
and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act,
1986, which is applicable in that State only.
The gang has been defined as a group of
persons, who, singly or collectively, indulge
in anti-national activities by violence orthreat of violence for gaining unduepolitical, economic or physical advantages
and includes, offences against the body,boot legging, forcible possession of
immovable property, creating communal
disturbances, obstructing public servantsin the discharge of their duties, kidnapping
for ransom, diverting an aircraft or public
transport vehicle from its schedule path,etc 16 .
A gangster is punishable with minimum
imprisonment of two years extendable up
to 10 years (sec. 3). The rules of evidence
have been modified and certain statutory
presumptions can be raised against thegangsters by the trial court. Provision has
also been made for the protection of
witnesses. The trial may be held in-cameraon the request of public prosecutor. The
name and address of a witness can beomitted in the court records, if the Court
so desires. The property of the gangster canbe attached by the District Magistrate if
satisfied that it was acquired throughcriminal activity.
This Act has a wide canvass andpurports to cover large areas of organised
criminal activity. It is, however, different
from laws enacted in foreign countries, inthat, apart from criminalising money
making activities of the criminal gangs, italso criminalises infringement of election
laws, causing obstruction or disturbance inthe pursuit of lawful trade, business or
profession and incitement to violence anddisturbance of communal harmony etc. It
appears to be more comprehensive than
RICO.

92

There is no firm data available to assess
its effectiveness. It appears that due toinadequate investigations and inordinately
delayed trials by the courts, this legislation
has not been able to make any dent on thecriminal landscape of the State.
D. Other Laws
There are several other central statutes
which deal with specific facets of organised
crime. Some of them are: the Customs Act,
1962; the Narcotics Drugs andPsychotropic Substances Act, 1884; theImmoral Traffic (Prevention ) Act, 1956; theForeign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973
and the Public Gambling Act, 1867 etc.
Besides, the State Government have also
legislated on subjects like excise,prohibition and gambling etc.
E. Preventive Action
The National Security Act 1980, provides
for preventive detention by the Central
Government or the State Government orby the officers designated by these
Government. The detention order is issued
for one year with a view to preventing aperson from acting in any manner
prejudicial to the defence of India or to thefriendly relations with foreign powers. The
detention has to be approved by an
Advisory Board headed by a serving High
Court judge. The expression ‘security ofIndia’ is open to liberal interpretation andthis Act has been used, though sparingly,
against anti-national elements and hardcore gangsters. Detention is an executive
action and the case does not go to the court
for trial.
The illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs
and psychotropic substances poses a
serious threat to the health and welfare of
the people and the activities of persons
engaged in such illicit traffic have adestablising effect on the national economy.
The Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic
Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act
1988, provides for detention of such

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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persons. The Central Government or theState Government or designated officers ofthese Government, can pass an order for
detaining a person with a view topreventing him from engaging in illicit
traffic in narcotic drugs. The detention canbe made for one year but in certain
circumstances it is extendable to two years.
Thus, India has laws scattered in various
statutes to deal with various facets oforganised crime. The existing laws,
however, drastically fall short of therequirements to curb the menace. The
Government of India is conscious of thisand has drafted the Organised Crime
Control Act.
The draft Act defines ‘Organised
Criminal Gang’ in a very comprehensive
manner, incorporating most of the essential
characteristics of organised crime. A gangis defined as:“A band of two or more persons who
commit or attempt to commit or cause to
be committed, either individually orcollectively, in furtherance of a common
object or objects and on a continuingbasis, for material gains or otherwise, by
taking recourse to use or show of violenceor threat of violence, either direct or
implied, or by fraudulent or dishonestmeans corrupting the public servants,
any of the acts listed in Schedule I to thisAct.”
Schedule I includes most major criminal
offences, including murder, bodily harm,
smuggling, traffic in drugs, kidnapping for
ransom, espionage, causing bomb blasts,
aircraft hijacking, hostage taking, mass
killing, contract killing, gang rapes,
extortion etc. The draft Act specificallyprovides for admissibility of scientificexpert evidence; computer print-outs oftelephone calls, confession of the accused
person made to a police officer;
identification by videograph; evidence
obtained through Interpol and protectionof witnesses. It also provides for the setting
up of a national body to co-ordinate effort

against organised crime and the setting upof Organised Crime Cells at the State andDistrict levels. The Act also criminalises
laundering the proceeds of crime. The trial
under the proposed Act is to be conductedby a Designated Court. The Act provides
for stingent punishment to the accused. It
is not known when the National
Parliament will enact the law, but theabove effort shows the government’s deep
concern and anxiety about the growing
menace of organised crime and the need tocurb it.
The most significant aspect of the draft
Act appears to be that continuing criminal
activity, based on violence, even when not
impelled by ‘material gain’ , is proposed to
be brought within the ambit of organised
crime. This is an obvious departure fromprevalent definitions of organised crime inother countries.
VI. PROFILES OF SOMEORGANISED CRIMINAL GANGS
Criminal gangs have been operating inIndia since ancient times. The gangs of‘thugs’ usually preyed on travellers or
wayfarers while traversing lonely regionsthat passed through thick jungles. The‘thugs’ travelled in gangs, large or small,usually un-armed and appearing to bepilgrims, ascetics or other harmless
wayfarers. By means of ingenius tricks andfalse pretences, they won the confidence of
their intended victims who were looted andmurderd 17. Sir William Sleeman was
mainly responsible for destroying the‘thugg’ organisation. Lord William
Bentinck passed a series of special
legislation to crush the gangs. Sir
William Sleeman in his book “Rambles andRecollections” claims that between 18311837, as many as 3,206 thugs were
proceeded against; 418 out of that number
being hanged and 483 taken as approvers18.
Approvers and their descendents weredetained for many years in a special

93

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
institution at Jabalpur. The thug crime isalmost extinct now.
Dacoity was a serious menace in someparts of the country, particularly in the
Chambal ravines (trijunction of the present
States of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh
and Rajasthan) in the 1940’s and 1950s.
Some dacoit leaders like Man Singhbecame legends in their life time due totheir Robin-hood image. Several suchgangs continued to operate in the States ofMadhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh whichhave more or less been neutralised now
both as a result of police action and social
reform movements.
Depredations of criminal gangs in
Bombay compelled the first Governor of theisland to constitute a Special Forceconsisting of about 600 men in 1669 tocontrol the menace of the criminal gangs
who robbed the citizens and visiting sailors
alike 19 .
No systematic study of organised crimehas been conducted in India either from asociological or criminological angle. Thereis no firm data to indicate the number oforganised criminal gangs operating in the
country, their membership, their modus
operandii and the areas of their operation.
It whould not be wide off the mark to saythat thousands of organised gangs operate
in the country side. Their structure andleadership patterns may not strictly fall
into the classical Italian Mafia module, andthey may sometimes be operating in loose
structures, but the depredations of suchcriminal gangs are too well known to be
recounted. However, the most essential
characteristic of organised crime i.e making
money or “maximisation of profits” andacquiring political power through suchmoney, exists in most of the gangs. The
purpose of organised crime in India, as
elsewhere in the world, is monetary gain
and this is what makes it a formidable force
in today’s socio-political set up.
In view of the complexity of the problem,the continental size of the country and lack94

of authentic data, it is not possible to coverall, or for that matter even major, organised
criminal gangs in this paper. I have,
however, attempted to give profiles in brief,of some of the major gangs in metropolitan
areas which cosiderably affect the nation’slife.
A. Bombay Gangs
Bombay, being the financial capital ofIndia, is the playground of several criminal
gangs and their continuing warfare fordominance. The first systematic study oforganised crime was conducted by VK
Saraf, retired Commissioner of Police,
Bombay City, in 1995, in which he has
traced the origin of organised criminal
gangs in the city, their criminal activities
and the inter-gang warfares. He has also
enumerated the chief characteristics of theBombay gangs 20 .
After independence, due to prohibition
policy adopted by the Government of
Maharashtra, boot-legging or trade in illicit
liquor, became a lucrative business for thecriminal gangs. They made lot of moneyby supplying illicit liquor to the local
citizens. Their activities also extended to
the neighbouring State of Gujarat which
was declared dry at the time ofindependence and continues to be so eversince that time. Varada Rajan Mudaliar,
who started as a porter at VT Railway
Station, took to thievery at the Bombay
Docks and graduated to boot-legging in the
1960s. He acquired considerable wealththrough this activity and compromised thelaw enforcement system considerably. In
the mid 1980s, he became so influentialthat he used to hold ‘durbars’ in his areasof influence, to settle disputes.
Similarly, Haji Mastan and Yusuf Patel
started off as a small time criminals andlater took to smuggling gold and silver:
They made a lot of money and invested itin legitimate business, mainly construction
and real estate. Haji Mastan had anattempt made on Yusuf Patel’s is life in the

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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1970s due to business rivalry but the latter
survived. It was the beginning of gangwarfare in Bombay which continues
unabated to date and has claimed
hundreds of lives.
The four major Bombay gangs are as
follows:
1. Dawood Gang
Dawood is the most powerful, Bombay
gangsters having a country wide networks
with linkages abroad. He is one of the mostpowerful gangsters involved in transnational crimes mainly narcotic drugs,
smuggling, extortion and contract killing.
He has lived in Dubai since 1985. He hada phenomenal rise in short time. Being theson of a Bombay Crime Branch Head
Constable, he started off as a petty criminaland had the sympathies of Bombay Policedue to his father’s connections. He used tohelp smugglers recover money from those
who did not keep up their word. In the
1970s other gangs had become relatively
weak and he took advantage of the vacuum
and took to smuggling gold and silver. He
built up his criminal empire with the helpof his brothers, and close associates. He is
responsible for the elimination of hundredsof criminals belonging to rival gangs. He is
now in narcotic drugs trafficking. The
liberal bail policy pronounced by theSupreme Court helped him consolidate hisgang. In 1980s he became the most feared
gangster of Bombay. However, fearing risk
to his life at the hands of rival gangs, hefled to Dubai, but his criminal network
remains virtually intact. He operates hisgang with impunity as there is no
extradition treaty between India andDubai, and his extradition has been refusedby the Duabi authorities. He tried to winsocial respectability by playing host to
influential politicians and film stars in
Dubai.
His brother Anees Ibrahim looks after
smuggling, drugs and contract killings.
Noora looks after film financing andextortion from film personalities. Iqbal, alow profile person, looks after his legitimate
business activities including share markets
in Hong Kong and jewellery and gold
businesses. His gang cosists of about 4,000
to 5,000 men. 50% of the members are from
Bombay and the neighbouring districts.
25% come from Uttar Pradesh, including
Abu Salem, his right hand man.
Due to changes in fiscal policies,
smuggling of gold and silver has becomeless lucrative now. The main activities ofthis gang now are extortion, contract
killing, film financing, drug trafficking,smuggling computer parts and illicit tradein arms and ammunitions. They have been
supplying arms both to criminals andterrorists.
Dawood Ibrahim has invested heavily
legitimate businesses. His brother Anees
owns a Trading Company in Dubai.
Dawood has invested about 20 crores in
Diwan Shopping Centre in Bombay and isalso said to have financial stakes in the
Diamond Rock Hotel in Bombay. Nooraruns Suhail Travel in Bombay, which has
since come under severe enforcement
pressure. Dawood reportedly has hugefinancial stakes in the East West Airlines.
His legitimate business empire isestimated to have a turn over of about Rs.
2,000 crores per year.
Dawood’s gang was secular in character
before 1993 and used to attract volunteers
from both the Hindu and Muslim
c o m m u n i t i e s . H o w e v e r, a f t e r h i s
involvement in serial blasts in Bombay in
1993, most of the Hindu gangsters haveparted company with him. Sunil Samant,a dreaded gangster who continued to beloyal to him, was shot dead in Dubai in
1995 by the Chota Rajan gang. Apart fromhis brothers, who are his chief counsellors,
he now runs his empire through Abu
Salem and Chota Shakeel. The heirarchicalstructure of his gang is shown in Appendix
I.

95

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
2. Arun Gawli Gang
After the death of Ramya Naik, themantel of leadership of this gang fell on
the shoulders of Arun Gawli. There havebeen several inter-gang killings with the
Dawood gang and they have beentargetting the political and economic
interests of each other. This gang consistsof about 200 to 300 persons. Interestingly,
Arun Gawli was sent to jail in 1990 andeven though the Court granted him bail,he chose to remain in jail primarily toescape the wrath of the Dawood gang. He
was running his criminal empire fromwithin the jail premises by passing
instructions through his visitors. His gangis involved in the collection of protection
money from rich businessmen and contract
killings. He came out of jail and started apolitical party, Akil Bhartiya Sena. He has
again been sent back to jail for a contract
killing case. Arun Gawli is politically very
active and has considerable influence in theslum areas. He is posing a politicalchallenge to the ruling Shiv Sena in
Maharashtra.
3. Amar Naik Gang
This gang originated sometime in 1980
and was collecting protection money fromthe vegetable vendors in Dadar area ofBombay. When the leader of this gang (RamBhat) was sentenced to imprisonment in arobbery case, Amar Naik took over thereigns of the gang. The main thrust of his
criminal activities was to collect ‘haftas’
from the vegetable vendors, hawkers, bootleggers and smugglers. This earned him
good money. Due to a clash of interests, hisgang had several violent skirmishes with
the Arum Gawil gang, not only outside jailbut even within the jail premises where
gangsters of both the gangs were lodged,
resulting in several killings. This gang has
a strength of about 200 criminals. Amar
Naik was killed last year and the mantleof leadership has now fallen on theshoulders of his younger brother, an

96

engineer by profession.
4. Chota Rajan Gang
Chota Rajan started his criminal careerin the Dawood gang. After the 1993 bomb
blasts in Bombay, Dawood’s gang was
divided on communal lines. Chota Rajan
fell out with Dawood and fled from India.
He raised a new gang in 1994-95. According
to one estimate, the membership of thisgang is about 800. His areas of operation
are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar
Pradesh and Delhi. He essentially is adrug-trafficker and contract killer. He
joined hands with Arum Gawli and was
responsible for the killing of Sunil Samant,a trusted lieutenant of Dawood Ibrahim,
in Dubai in 1995. It was a retaliatory
killing. He has targetted many Dawood
loyalists and his gang has also suffered inretaliatory actions. Chota Rajan ispresently operating from a foreign base.
5. Characteristics of Bombay Gangs
Based on the study of the Bombay underworld, VK Saraf has concluded that:(i)

66% gangsters are in the age groupof 19 to 28 years; 26% in that of 29
to 38 years and 6.5% are above 40
years.

(ii) 29% studied up to primary school,
42.5% up to secondary school and
5% had a college education.
(iii) M o s t h a v e p o o r e c o n o m i c
backgrounds and were propelled
into the world of crime due toeconomic difficulties.
(iv) Majority of the gangsters come fromoutside Bombay city and about 30%
from outside the state ofMaharashtra.
(v) The gangs are not based on region
or religion but after the 1993 bomb

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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blasts, the Hindu gangsters havediassociated themselves from the
Dawood gang.
(vi) The Bombay gangster is a coolheaded schemer and ruthless andun-hesitatingly employs terroristic
methods when he percieves his
interest jeopardised. He is prone totaking to violence on the slightest
provocation.
(vii) There is no initiation ceremony or
ritual for the members. However, a‘hopeful’ is made to be involved in acriminal situation to test his metal.
(viii) The leaders have a caring attitude
towards the members. The families
are well looked after by theleadership when the members are
killed or are in jail.
(ix) A gang leader is not a total autocrat.
He consults experienced people in
the gang. After the death of Sunil
Samant, Dawood Ibrahim relies on
his brothers and his decisions are
executed through Abu Salem andChota Shakeel.
(x) There is evidence of a loose
confederation of gangsters. A
smaller gang may merge into abigger gang but does not lose its
identity completely. The smallergang carries out the decisions of themain gang but is left free to involvein any activities of its choice, so longas it does not clash with theinterests of the main gang.
(xi) The gangsters have unflinching
loyalty to the boss. Lack of loyalty
means death.

collectors and liaison workers. The
liaison workers deal with thelawyers and law enforcemntt
officials for helping the incarcerated
gangsters. Each gang has certain
auxillary members. They havecriminal records and generally
provide shelter to the gangsters andact as a depository for weapons.
Their premises are used for holding
meetings and making telephone
calls by the gangsters.
B. Delhi Gangs
Delhi is the national capital of thecountry. It is a bustling metropolis,
inhabited by about 10 million people, withhigh industrial and business activity.
Despite heavy commitments, the police
have hit organised criminal gangs hard,due to which they have not been able todevelop such deep roots as in Bombay. Evenso, there is large criminogenic population
inhabiting the neighbouring Stateseffecting Delhi.
As it is the home of rich industrialists,businessmen and professionals,
kidnapping for ransom is a lucrative
business here. The going rate of ransom
ranges from Rs. 1.00 crore to Rs. 5.00
crores. Fortunately, most of the cases havebeen solved by the Delhi Police. Some
victims paid huge ransoms to secure theirrelease. Om Prakash Srivastava Babloo
and other U.P gangs have been responsible
for several kidnappings. Table 14 shows
kidnappings for ransom in Delhi and thelaw enforcement action.
From the Table it is apparent that somefake cases were also registered. The
proportion of cases worked out by police
ranges between 80 and 90%. Most of thevictims are rescued. Four gangs, namely,
Tyagi gang, Dinesh Gang, Rajesh Dhahiyagang and O.P. Srivastava Babloo gang aremost active in the city.

(xii) The gangsters are divided in three
categories, namely, shooters, money

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
1. Veerappan Gang of Karnataka23
Veerappan is the most notorious
criminal in the country today. The criminal‘empire’ of Veerappan spreads over 6,000
sq. kms of thick tropical rain forests in the
Nilgiri hills, stradling the trijunction of
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. He
started his criminal career as elephantpoucher in 1965 and emerged as a real
menace in 1986, when his gang started
committing extortions, murders andkidnappings for ransom. According to one
estimate, he has killed about 2000
elephants for their tusk and committed
theft of 40,000 Kgs of ivory worth about
Rs.12.00 crores. His gang has also indulged
in large scale illegal felling of sandal woodtrees which is used for cosmetics purposes
in India and abroad. The gang has acquired
expertise in laying land mines due to whicha large number of police personnel were
killed. At its peak, the gang had 150
members.
In view of the serious threat posed by
Veerappan gang to wild life and forests, aSpecial Task Force was set up by the Statesof Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in 1993. Dueto the relentless action of the Task Force,
the gang has now been reduced to about

25 members, with only four original
members of the gang surviving. 133
recorded cases of murder and attempted
murder exist in the police records against
this gang. Besides this, hundreds of grave
crimes against innocent citizens remain
un-reported to the police. Veerappan’s gangis responsible for the killing of 119 persons
and 60 police/forest officials. The police
have recovered 125 firearms amd 5 tons of
explosives from the gang. Veerappan is anintrepid criminal who often expresses his
wish to surrender to the authorities, but
always backs out. Last month, heannounced his surrender but it was turned
down by the Government due to unrealistic
conditions imposed by him. Interestingly,
he demanded CBI inquiry into the deathof his brother Arjunan in police custody. He
is one of the longest surviving notorious
criminals and has succeeded in escaping
the law so far.
2. Om Prakash Srivastava@Babloo,Gangof Uttar Pradesh
Om Prakash Srivastava was born to an
educated family in Uttar Pradesh. He took
to street crime during his student days in
1983. He is a law graduate and is fond of

TABLE VIIKIDNAPPINGS FOR RANSOM IN DELHI - 1993-1997

1.CASES REGISTERED
2.CASES CANCELLED
3.CASES ADMITTED
4.CASES WORKED OUT
5.CASES NOT WORKED OUT
6.VICTIMS KIDNAPPED/ABDUCTED
7.VICTIMS RECOVERED
8.VICTIMS NOT RECOVERED
9.PERSONS ARRESTED

98

1993

1994

1995

1996

28
2
26
26
-

40
9
31
27
4

43
6
37
29
8

23
1
22
20
2

1997
(upto
15.12.1997)
17
1
16
13
3

30
29
1
76

41
37
4
86

44
42
2
81

23
21
2
59

17
16
1
45

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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good living. To date, 41 cases of murder,
attempted murder and kidnappings forransom stand registered against him andhis associates. Several cases remain
unreported due to fear. His area of
operation is Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and
Maharashtra. He is responsible fororganizing kidnappings in Delhi and
Bombay in which ransom amounts were
paid in foreign countries through ‘hawala’.
At its peak, his gang consisted of about 50
criminals, mostly from Uttar Pradesh andDelhi. He is presently in jail and half of
his gang has been booked by the police. Thegang, though still active, appears to havelost much of its power.
He was responsible for the killing of asenior Central Government Customs
officer, L.D. Arora in 1993. Om Prakash
Srivastava had organized this killing froma foreign country through his shooters. He
was arrested in Singapore in April,1995
on the basis of a Red Corner Notice issued
by Interpol. He was extradited to India in
August 1995 for four cases, including the
L.D.Arora murder case. It was reported
that he succeeded in organising somekidnappings from within the within the jailpremises through his associates. The
ransom amounts were paid abroad to his
associates through hawala.
There are 744 powerful mafia gangs
operating in Uttar Pradesh, according to
the State Government sources. They holdnearly every sector of the economy in a vice
like grip, running a parallel economy
which runs into thousands of crores ofrupees. The reach and power of these dons
is evident from the fact that so far only 81
gangsters, only middle level members, havebeen arrested under the NSA and theGangsters Act. These gangs have the wide
support of politicians and policeman alike.
3. Latif Gang of Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad is the capital of Gujarat
state and is situated in the western part ofIndia. The Ahmedabad underworld issynonymous with Latif who started his
criminal career with a small time bootlegger in the mid 1970s and soon graduatedto hving his own illicit liquor and gamblingdens in the city. The Latif gang, which isbelieved to consist of 200 persons, owes its
genesis and growth to the prohibition policy
adopted by the Government of Gjarat. As
the adjoining State of Rajasthan is wet, it
is a lucrative and low risk to transport
truck loads of liquor into the Gujarat state.
Latif set up an elaborate network of illicit
shops in Ahmedabad city and made afabulous amount of money. With affluencecame political clout and his gang thereafterused the tactics of intimidation, extortions,kidnappings and even murder against rival
boot leggers and, thus, established a totalmonopoly over the liquor business. The
communal riots, a recurrent phenomenon
in the Ahmedabad city, gave him a chance
to promote a Robin-hood image in thecommunity by helping the riot victims. The
result was that even when he was jailed,
he won municipal elections from fivedifferent cities in 1987.
Latif and his gang become more
audacious and were responsible for daylight murders in the city. The high-profile
murder of an ex-member of Parliament wasorganised through his gang from Dubai,
where he joined with Dawood Ibrahim.
He is responsible for landing explosiveson the Western coast, some of which wereused in the Bombay blasts. The gang is now
deeply involved in contract killings, drugtrafficking and gun running. A part of thegang is also involved in settling businessand land disputes. The gang uses ‘hawala’channels for collecting ransom abroad. It
has linkages in several States in the
country.
In 1995 he was arested. 243 criminalcases including 64 cases of murder, 14 ofkindnapping and 21 offences against theArms Act have been registered against hisgang. The details of the offences registeredagainst the Latif gang and organisational

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
chart thereof is enclosed as Annexure II.
4. Rashid Gang of Calcutta
Calcuta, a port town and one of the mostpopulous cities in the country, is situatedin the Eastern part of the country and ispart of West Bengal. Several organised
criminal gangs operate in this city and its
surrounding areas. Examination of history
sheets of 1,000 criminals involved in crimesof violence, insurgency and terrorist
activities, between 1975 and 1985 revealed
that the age group is between 21 and 25
years at the peak of crime. The criminals
started their career rather early at the ageof 16-18. More than 90% of them were
unemployed and earned their living by
smuggling and extortion. Most were fromlower income group families and lived inslums. They were addicted to narcotics andalcohol. Most of them were without thebenefit of education, though not illiterate.
The study also revealed that the gang
leaders (known as Dada or Nastan),
generally, come from middle class strata ofsociety. The gang leader is either semiliterate or an educated person with highorganisational ability. The average agegroup of the gang leader is 40 to 50 years.
In Calcutta the most well known gangis that of Rashid Khan who started his
career as a bookie in the ‘satta’ business,and developed a vast network of gambling
business in the city. Due to his money
power, he also became close to the rulingpolitical party. Even though his activities
were well within the knowledge of police,
no serious effort was made to smash his
network. However, his luck ran out whenin March, 1993, a huge bomb explosion took
place in a building under his control
resulting in the death of 69 person andinjuries to 46 others. The adjoining
buildings also collapsed. Rashid Khan andhis associates were arrested. Investigation
disclosed that he had engaged his gangmembers in manufacturing bombs and wasstock-piling them for use in communal riots

100

and against rival gangs. Due to the gravityof crime, his political connections or money
power did not help and he is now in jail.
VII. TYPES OF ORGANISED CRIME
A. Drug Abuse and Drug Trafficking
It is perhaps the most serious organised
crime affecting the country and is truly
transnational in character. India isgeographically situated between the
countries of Golden Triangle and Golden
Crescent and is a transit point for narcotic
drugs produced in these regions to theWest. India also produces a considerable
amount of licit opium, part of which also
finds place in the illicit market in different
forms. Illicit drug trade in India centres
around five major substances, namely,
heroin, hashish, opium, cannibas andmethaqualone. Seizures of cocaine,
amphetamine, and LSD are not unknown
but are insignificant and rare.
Our borders have traditionally been
most vulnerable to drug trafficking. In
1996, out of the total quantity of heroin
seized in the country, 64% was sourced fromthe ‘Golden Crescent’. The Indo-Mynamar
border is also quite sensitive but thepercentage of seizures is much smaller.
Indo-Sri Lanka border has also started
contributing considerably to the drug trade.
The seizure of narcotic drugs from 1991 to
1995 and persons involved is shown in
Table VII.
In 1996, 13,554 Persons were arrested
under the Narcotics Drugs andPsychotropic Substances Act. Out of them
130 were foreign nationals. Besides, 80
persons were detained under PIT NDPS
Act, in 1991; 80 each in 1992 and 1993; 123
in 1994 and 89 in 1995.
India has a draconian anti drug law, theNarcotics Drugs and Psychotropic
Substance Act 1985, which provides
minimum punishment of 10 years foroffences under this Act. The conviction rate
in drug offences is rather low. It was 48.8%

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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in 1995. The acquittals mainly result due
to nonobservance of statutory andprocedural safeguards viz, the enforcement
officer failing to volunteer himself for
personal search before conducting thepersonal or house search of the accused or
failure in offering to have the accusedsearched by a gazetted officer or a
Magistrate. It is being contemplated toamend the Act to plug the proceduralloopholes and to calibrate punishments bygrouping the offences.
Investigative skills need to be honed andtrials expedited. Inter-agency exchange of
information amongst the countries by thequickest possible means, coupled withexpeditious extradition proceedings, would
prove helpful in curbing the drug
meance.India signed bilateral agreementswith USA, UK, Myanmar, Afghanistan,
UAE, Mauritius, Zambia, and the RussianFederation for ‘drug control’.
B. Smuggling
Smuggling, which consists ofclandenstine operations leading to unrecorded trade, is another major economic
offence. The volume of smuggling depends
on the nature of fiscal policies pursued by
the Government. The nature of smuggled
items and the quantum thereof is also
determined by the prevailing fiscal policies.

India has a vast coast line of about 7,500
kms and open borders with Nepal andBhutan and is prone to large scale
smuggling of contraband and otherconsumable items. Though it is not possible
to quantify the value of contraband goods
smuggled into this country, it is possible tohave some idea of the extent of smugglingfrom the value of contraband seized, eventhough they may constitute a very small
proportion of the actual smuggling.
Table IX shows the value of goods seized.
The high point of smuggling was in 1990
when contrabands worth Rs. 760 crores
were seized. Introduction of various
liberalisation measures, such as the goldand silver import policies in 1992-93, have
had their impact on customs seizures. The
total value of seizures came down by 30%(Rs. 536 crores in 1992) and subsequently
to Rs.389 in 1993.
The value of seizures of importantcommodities from 1991 to 1996 is shownin Table IX. The value of seizures of goldand silver accounted for about 44% of thetotal seizures anually prior to theliberalised import policies. It came down
to 21% after the invocation of the newpolicies. This value has been further
falling. On the other hand, the seizures ofcommodities like electronic goods,
narcotics, synthetic fabrics, wrist watches,

TABLE VIII27
SEIZURE OF NARCOTIC DRUGS & NO.OF PERSONS INVOLVED1991-1995
Drug Type
1.Opium
2.Ganja
3.Hashish
4.Heroin
5.Mandrax
6.Persons Arrested(No.)
7.Persons Prosecuted(No.)
8.Persons Convicted(No.)

1991
2145
52633
4413
622
4415
5300
5546
855

1992
1918
64341
6621
1153
7475
12850
7172
761

1993
3011
98867
8238
1088
15004
13723
9964
1488

1994
2256
187896
6992
1011
45319
15452
9154
1245

(in Kgs.)
1995
1183
57584
3073
1251
16838
14673
12918
2456

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
Indian currency, foreign currency etc rose
during 1994-95. The value of seizure ofelectronic items rose from Rs.35 crores in1993 to Rs. 51 crores in 1995. The value of
Indian currency and foreign currency
seized rose from Rs. 5 crores and 20 crores
respectively in 1993 to Rs. 10 crores and43 crores respectively in 1995.
In 1987, gold occupied the top position
amongst smuggled items followed bynarcotics, electronic watches and silver. In
1995, however, narcotics occupied number
one position followed by gold, electronics,
foreign currency and synthetic fabrics.
Table XI shows the number of persons
arrested, prosecuted and convicted under
the Customs Act. In addition, 758 persons
TABLE IX28
VALUE OF SMUGGLED GOODSSEIZED 1988-1995
YEAR
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995

VALUE OF GOODS SEIZED(in crores)
443.14554.95760.08740.00535.71388.96535.22631.25were detained under COFEPOSA in 1991;
423 in 1992; 372 in 1993; 363 in 1994 and
350 in 1995.
C. Money Laundering & Hawala
Money laundering means conversion ofillegal and ill-gotten money into seemingly
legal money so that it can be integrated into
the legitimate economy. Proceeds of drug
related crimes are an important source ofmoney laundering world over. Besides, tax
evasion and violation of exchange
regulations play an important role inmerging this ill-gotten money with tax
evaded income so as to obscure its origin.
This aim is generally achieved via theintricate steps of placement, layering andintegration so that the money so integrated
in the legitimate economy can be freely
used by the offenders without any fear of
detection. Money laundering poses a
serious threat world over, not only to the
only to the criminal justice systems of thecountries but also to their sovereignty. The
United National Convention against Illicit
Traffic in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Act, 1988, (known as theVienna Convention) to which India is ap a r t y, c a l l s f o r c r i m i n a l i s a t i o n o flaundering of the proceeds of drug crimes
and other connected activities, and theconfiscation of proceeds derived from suchoffences. There is no knowing how much

TABLE X29VALUE OF SEIZURES OF IMPORTANT COMMODITIES 1991-1996

Gold
SilverNarcotics
Electronic Items
Foreign Currency
Indian Currency
Synthetic Fabrics
Watches102

1990-91
198.8
146.6
25.1
55.5
7.7
6.5
4.8
3.2

1991-92
188.5
147.7
21.8
23.1
10.8
5.6
2.0
6.2

1994-95
55.4
3.6
54.3
51.2
27.4
6.6
2.4
3.3

(in crores)
1995-96
50.8
0.54
77.94
38.0
40.2
5.6
12.9
3.9

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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NUMBER OF ARRESTED, PROSECUTED AND CONVICTED 1991-1994
YEAR
1991
1992
1993
1994

ARRESTED
2358
1745
1234
1210

money is laundered in India but the
problem is quite serious. The tainted
money is being accumulated and integrated
into the economy by organised racketeers,smugglers, economic offenders and antisocial elements and is adversely affecting
the internal security of the country. In
order to curb the meance of money
laundering, the Central Government is in
the process of enacting the Proceeds ofCrime and Money Laundering (Prevention)
Act, 1997. In the proposed Act, money
laundering has been defined as:(i) engaging directly or in-directly in atransaction which involves property
that is the proceed of crime; or(ii) receiving, possessing, concealing,transferring, converting, disposing ofwithin the territories of India,
removing from or bringing into theterritory of India the property i.e
proceeds of crime.
‘Crime’, as defined in the Act, covers,
several Penal Code offences viz., waging
war against the Government of India,
murder, attempted murder, voluntarily
causing hurt, kidnapping for ransom,
extortion, robbery, dacoity, criminal breachof trust, cheating, forgery, counterfeiting
currency etc; certain provisions of thePrevention of Corruption Act, 1988; NDPS
Act, 1985; Foreign Exchange Regulation
Act, 1973 and the Customs Act,1962. Thus,‘crime’ has been defined comprehensively
in the Act. The money generated through‘crime’ is liable to be confiscated by theState.
Illegal currency transfers via non-

PROSECUTED
1669
1051
679
301

CONVICTED
574
381
350
352

banking channels are called Hawala. It isan underground banking system. Secretflows of money can take place in freecurrency areas as well as in areas where
currency conversion restrictions arepractised due to the shortage of foreignexchange. It operates in the following
manner. Someone in the USA, for example,
deposits $1000 with an under-groundbanker for payment to be made in India.
The US under-ground banker contacts
their counter part in India immediately on
the telephone or by wire service and sends
a coded message for payment to the Indianrecipient. The hawala operator in India
would contact the recipient and fix ameeting place. The recipient, in the
meanwhile, would have received
instructions on the telephone about thecode word s/he has to exchange with the
hawala operator. Thus, the hawala
operator in India and the recipient of themoney would exchange code words and thehawala operators would hand over themoney to the recipient. Of course, thehawala operator in USA would charge a fee
for the service rendered. There is no
physical transfer of money in hawala
operations as in the regular banking
channels. This channel is generally usedby drug traffickers, smugglers andkidnappers.
Basically, the system operates on an
ethnic network. The network may include
more than 3 or 4 countries. The principal
operators engage agents and sub agents invarious countries for collection anddisbursement of money. Hawala is wide-

103

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
spread in India. Families who havemembers earning abroad are clients of thesystem. The dangerous aspect of thehawala system is the nexus between
hawala and illicit arms smugling, drugtrafficking and terrorist crimes.
Investigations in hawala related crimes
are conducted under the Foreign Exchange
Regulation Act. Even through the word
‘hawala’ has not been defined in FERA, theessence of the Act is that any person who
retains foreign exchange abroad or sends
foreign exchange abroad, without theReserve Bank’s permission is violating
FERA provisions.
D. Terrorism & Narco-Terrorism
Terrorism is a serious problem which
India is facing. Conceptually, terrorism
does not fall in the category of organised
crime, as the dominant motive behindterrorism is political and/or ideological andnot the acquisition of money-power. The
Indian experience, however, shows that thecriminals are perpetrating all kinds ofcrimes, such as killings, rapes,
kidnappings, gun-running and drugtrafficking, under the umbrella of terrorist
organisations. The existing criminal
networks are being utilised by the terrorist
leaders. India faced serious problems in the
Punjab in the 1980s, which has since been
controlled with the installation of a populargovernment. The North East still continues
to be in turmoil due to the unlawful
activities of ULFA and NSCN. The terroristgroups there are partly financing theiroperations by kidnappings for ransom oftea garden executives and extortion frombusinessmen. PWG and LTTE, in small
pockets of southern India, continue toindulge in continual acts of violence.
Table XI gives profile of violence inPunjab. Besides, 9 judicial officers, 62
media personnel and 34 teachers were
killed during this period. There was also aspill over of Sikh militancy in theneighbouring States.

104

In view of threat to the national security,
the Central Government, enacted an antiterrorist law, Terrorist and Disruptive
Activities (Prevention) Act, 1985. About
60,000 terrorists were charged under thisAct. However, the trials were slow and theconviction rate quite low. This Act wasallowed to lapse in 1995. India at present
does not have any anti-terrorist law.
India has become vulnerable to narco
terrorism, bounded as it is by the ‘Golden
Crescent’ on the West and the ‘Golden
Triangle’ on the East. Narco terrorism
assumes several forms, namely:(a) terrorists themselves indulge in drugtrafficking to support their
movements ;(b) sympathizers of terrorists living
abroad indulge in drug trafficking
and send part of their illegal profits
to fund the terrorist movements ;(c) terrorists join hands with drug lords
to gain access to the powers, in the
countries sympathetic to their cause,in order to utilise their connections
with political powers ;(d) terrorists give protection and support
to drug traffickers with fire arms, andthe drug traffickers, being acquainted
with the routes, assist the terrorists
in border crossings to bring arms anddrugs in the target country; and(e) Smugglers supply fire arms to theterrorists who are also drugtraffickers.
The areas affected by terrorism in India
are the border States which also happen
to be transit roues for narcotics to theirdestinations in the Western world. It is nota concidence that the growth of terrorist
movement in Punjab synchronised with the
emergence of the Golden Crescent as amajor drug producing area in the early
1980s. The emergence of drug mafias in theGolden Crescent countries and theirlinkages with smugglers in the borderStates of India have given impetus to gun-

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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running. There is positive evidence of
narco-terrorism in the border States ofIndia even though the magnitude there ofis not significant. Some mixed
consignments of narcotic drugs and arms
were seized from smugglers in the Punjab.
There is also evidence that the money
generated abroad by the smugglers wasused for purchase of weapons which were
smuggled into the country for terrorist
activities. To illustrate, Dawood Ibrahim,
utilised the existing smuggling network inlanding consignments of arms andexplosives on the western coast in early
1993, used for causing serial blasts in
Bombay.
E. Light Arms Proliferation &Trafficking
Light arms proliferation is a global
phenomena. It has extracted a heavy tollin terms of human lives and socio economic
development of entire regions, costs ofwhich can never be adequately computed.
In Afghanistan, the death toll has passed
1,00,000 and is still rising, while Cambodia,
Sri Lanka and some African States
continue to see conflict related deaths intheir thousands. India has also suffered

due to trafficking in illicit arms. The twin
phenomenon of rising crime as well asarmed conflicts and terrorism are directly
linked to the global proliferation andmovement of weapons. Appendix III shows
the inextricable links between gun
running, terrorism, narcotics trafficking
and crime.34
The Purulia Arms Drop Case is the mostglaring example of illicit arms trafficking.
On 17th December, 1996, an Antonov 26
aircraft dropped over 300 AK 47/56 rifles
and 20,545 rounds of ammunition, dragnov
snipper weapons, rocket launchers andnight vision devices in a Purulia village inWest Bengal State. The aircraft was boughtfrom Latvia for US$ 2 million andchartered by a Hong Kong registeredcompany, Carol Airlines. Payments weremade mostly through foreign bankaccounts. The aircraft was ferried to aforeign country where it was registered.
After a dry run over the air drop area, theaircraft moved to Bulgaria from where theconsignment of arms was picked up using
a end-users certificate issued by a foreigncountry.
The aircraft returned to a location in aforeign country and then flew over the air

TABLE XII32
PROFILE OF VIOLENCE IN PUNJAB- 1981-92
Year
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
TOTAL

No.of Persons Killed
13
13
75
359
63
520
910
1949
1168
2467
2586
1461
11,584

No.of Policemen Killed
2
2
20
20
8
42
95
110
152
493
493
252
1689

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
drop area, parashuting the arms and thenflew on to Phuket. On the return journey,
the aircraft was forced to land at Bombay,
where the crew were arrested. CBIinvestigated this case and 7 persons werecharged, including one British, 5 Latvians
and an Indian. Several others absconded.
The seizures reflect only the tip of theiceberg. Similar caches have been seizedin Punjab and the North East. Gun runningin foreign-made and Indian made weapons
is a lucrative business, in militancy affected
and high crime areas. The premium on
foreign made weapons is quite high, andrelevant laws need to be made more
stringent and speedy trials ensured.
F. Contract Killings
The offence of murder is punishable
under section 302 IPC by life imprisonment
or death sentence. Conviction rate inmurder cases is about 38%. The chance ofdetection in contract kilings is quite low.
The method adopted in contract killings is
by engaging a professional gang for amonetary consideration. Part of theprefixed amount will be paid in advancewhich is called ‘supari’. The rest of thepayment will be made after the commissionof the crime. The Bombay gangs specialisein contract killings. The amont they charge
is quite large and varies with the socioeconomic status of the targets. Dawood
Ibrahim gang has been responsible forcontract killings of several richbusinessmen, industrialists andpoliticians. Gulshan Kumar, the music
magnate of Bombay, was the latest victimof this scourge.
G. Kidnapping for Ransom
Kidnapping for ransom is a highlyorganised crime in urban conglomerates.
There are several local as well as interState gangs involved in it as the financial
rewards are immense vis-a-vis the labourand risk involved. Generally, no injury iscaused to the kidnapee if the Kidnappers’

106

conditions are met. Terrorist gangs havealso been occasionally involved in
kidnappings for quick money to financetheir operations. In one recent case, thekidnapee was killed even after his family
paid a huge ransom amount to a U.P. gang.
The leader of the gang was known to thevictim and he feared the victim would
disclose the gang’s identity if released.
Several arrests have been made in thiscase. Incidentally, the leader of the gang is
a Member of the Legislative Assembly of
the State of North India.
Delhi and Bombay are highly vulnerable
to this crime. 43 cases were registered in
Delhi in 1995, against 40 of 1994. The
incidence was less in 1996 and 1997, as
most of the cases were detected by thepolice and prominent gangs neutralised.
The going rate in Delhi and Bombay ranges
from Rs. 1.00 to 5.00 crores, depending
upon the paying capacity of the victims.
The gang headed by Om Prakas Srivastava
is transnational in character and often
operates from foreign bases, with payments
made abroad through hawala channels.
In view of the aforesaid menace, a new
section (section 364- A) was incorporated
in the Penal Code to specificallycriminalised kidnapping for ransom andprescribes a minimum punishment of 10
years.
H. Illegal Immigration
A large number of Indians are working
abroad, particularly in the Gulf region.
Young people want to move to foreigncountries for lucrative jobs. Large scalemigration is fostered by the high rate ofunemployment in the country and higher
wage levels in foreign lands. As it is noteasy for the aspirants to obtain valid travel
documents and jobs abroad, they fall into
the trap of unscrupulous travel agents andemployment agencies. These agencies
promise to give them valid travel
documents and employment abroad on thepayment of huge amounts. Often the travel

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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documents are not valid, and sometimes
they are simply dumped into foreign lands
without giving them the promised
employment.
A gruesome tragedy occurred in which
170 Indians and some others drowned in
the high seas of the Malta-Sicily channel
on 24th and 25th December, 1996.
Investigation of this case was handled by
the CBI which disclosed that the travel
agents in India sent some groups of Indians
to Alexandria (Egypt) and Istanbul(Turkey) by air in September 1996.
Thereafter, they were taken in small ships
to the high seas from Alexandria andIstanbul and were transferred to a big ship.
There were about 460 people from India,
and other countries on board. The shipheaded towards Italy. In the Malta Sicily
channel, they were required to shift to two
smaller ships. While docking, the two ships
collided and water started pouring into thesmall ship which created panic. There wasrush to get back to the big ship and in theprocess 200 people, including 170 Indiansdrowned. Country-wide investigation was
conducted by the CBI and 25 travel agentswere charged with violation of the
Emigration Act, 1983.
Emigration of Indians to foreigncountries is regulated by the Emigration
Act 1983, which empowers the Central
Government to regulate functioning of thetravel agents and employment agencies.
The employment agencies are also required
to give written undertakings regarding
minimum wages and surety of employment
to the emigrants. The loop holes in thesystem are, however, exploited by theunscrupulous elements by false
representations and fraudulent deals. It isa transnational crime and involves
unfathomable exploitation and humanmisery. International co-operation may pay
a vital role in curbing illegal migrations.
I. Prostitution
Trading in sex and girl-running is a very

profitable business in which the underworld plays an important part. Flesh trade
has been flourishing in India in various
places and in different forms. The
underworld is closely connected withbrothels and call girl rackets, making
plenty of money through this activity. They
supply young girls to brothels in different
parts of the country, shuttling them to andfrom the city to minimise the risk of their
being rescued.
According to a study conducted by the
Indian Health Organisation, there are over
1,000,000 prostitutes in Bombay and an
equal number in Calcutta. Delhi and Pune
have an estimated 40,000 each. Even therelatively small town of Nagpur has about
15,000 prostitutes. According to a survey
conducted by Patita Udhar Samiti, it isestimated that the total number of
prostitutes in the country is about
25,000,000. About 300,000 enter the
profession each year 36.
There is also evidence to show that it isa transnational crime. About 5,000 girls
from Nepal enter the flesh market eachyear in India.
Prostitution is not an offence in India.
However, running brothels, inducing girls
for the sake of prostitution, detaining girls
in brothels or running brothels in thevicinity of public places is a criminal
offence. There is evidence of underworld
networks running the brothels and theexisting law has not been found strong
enough to tackle the menace.
VIII. CASE STUDIES
A. Shankar Guha Neogi Murder
Case
Shankar Guha Neogi, a top labour leaderof Central India, was shot dead in
September, 1991, while sleeping in his
house. On the request of the Governmentof Madhya Pradesh, the CBI moved into
action. Investigation disclosed that he had
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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
of his union in Bhillai-Raipur Belt,
demanding remunerative wages andpermanancy of jobs for them. As the strike
continued for almost nine months, thisnaturally disturbed the functioning ofseveral industrial units, particularly, thatof steel manufacturing units of the Shahfamily. Investigation further disclosed thata member of the Shah famly, alongwith
three others, including two local dons, hadgone abroad to purchase fire arms formurdering Neogi. The clue came in theform of an anynomous inland letter giving
the above information and mentioning thenames of persons who had gone abroad.
Suspicion was strengthened due to thedisappearance of a member of the Shahfamily after the incident. Working on thisclue, CBI, with the help of the local police,
arrested the perpetrators of this crime. The
Shah family had assigned the task ofeliminating Neogi to a local don who hired
a professional killer belonging to aneighbouring State. It was a case ofcontract killing and some money was paid
before the killing by the Shah family andthe balance amount was to be paid after
the commission of crime. The killer
absconded after the incident and it took
almost two years to track him down. There
were three tiers in the conspiracy. In thefirst tier were the motivators i.e the Shahfamily who wanted Neogi killed. In thesecond tier was the local don who organised
the killing. The third tier consisted of theactual shooter and his associates.
After painstaking investigation, thecharge sheet was filed against nine accused
persons. The case was decided last year andthe trial Court convicted seven accused.
While six persons were given life
imprisonment, the killer was ordered to behanged. The case is now pending High
Court confirmation of the death sentence.
This is one of the few cases of organised
crime in which three tiers of criminals,
including two members of the Shah fimily,
have been convicted.

108

B. L.D. Arora Murder Case
L.D. Arora, a senior officer of the
Customs Department, was shot dead in
1993, at point blank range, while gettingout of his car in front of his residence in
the Allahabad town of Uttar Pradesh. He
had just returned from his office. The
unknown assailant had been waiting for
him under the stair case of the multistoreyed building in which Arora lived. The
Uttar Pradesh Police could not get a
breakthrough. The case ultimately came to
CBI. Investigation started from Bombay
where the deceased was posted for a longtime and had come down heavily on anumber of smuggling gangs, including thatof notorious smugglers Md. Dosa, Tiger
Memon and Dawood Ibrahim. His general
reputation and family life were also foundto be good, therefore it seemed that thekilling was committed due to professional
reasons. Arora had been threatened by thesmugglers in the past. Even after histransfer from Bombay to Allahabad, he wasrunning his sources and passing on
information to his counter-parts in
Bombay, resulting in large scale seizuresof contraband. A suspect telephone numberof a neighbouring country and scrutiny of
the telephone print out revealed thatseveral calls had been made to several
numbers in Bombay and Delhi. Subscribersof the called numers were questioned and
one in Delhi disclosed that he was being
called by notorious criminal Om Prakash
Srivastava from abroad. When questioned
about his relationship with Babloo, hedisclosed that Babloo was his neighbour,living in a rented house, about a year backand had absconded after a murder case (notArora murder case). The Delhi Police
records were checked and it was found that
Babloo was suspected in that murder case.
It was also found that Babloo was acontract killer and smuggler. This madehim a strong suspect. Invesigation also
disclosed that Babloo had repeatedly called
a hotel number in Allahabad, several times

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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on the days proceeding Arora’s murder andalso on the day of the murder. The hotel
register disclosed that some of his
associates had stayed in that hotel andreceived calls from Babloo. Babloo’s
associates had given correct names in the
hotel records but wrong addresses.
However, on further verification the names
and addresses of the suspects wereconfirned. The shooter was caught in Delhi
and his disclosure revealed that Babloo had
organised this killing on the instructionsof smuggler Md. Dosa from Dubai. He also
disclosed how the conspiracy was planned,
how the transport and arms were provided
by Babloo and his associates, and how
Arora was eliminated. The car involved in
the crime was seized. He got Rs. 1.00 lac
for the killing and Babloo got 15.00 lacs
from Md. Dosa. Arrest warrants were takenfrom the Court and Interpol alerted.
In 1995, information was received that
Babloo was travellng to Singapore from
Dubai on a Nepalese passport. Interpol
Singapore, was alerted and they detained
Babloo at the airport. On being informedof this development, Indian officials flew
to Singapore and submitted the arrest
warrant and other relevant documents in
the Court. The disconcerting aspect of thiscase was that Babloo was travelling under
an assumed name on a genuine Nepalesepassport. During questioning by theSingapore Police, he pretended that he was
not the person wanted by CBI. It wasnecessary not only to establish a prima
facie case in the Extradition Court at
Singapore but also to firmly establish his
identity. Indian officials persuaded hiselder brother to swear an affidavit to prove
his identity and fingerprints fromSingapore and India were matched. The
Extradition Magistrate held that there wasa prima facie case against Babloo in all the
court cases. He was extradited to India in
August 1995 and is facing trial now. This
was the first extradition case in 45 years.

C. Terrorist Funding Case
A militant was arrested by Delhi Police
sometime back along with some foreign
currency and objectinable documents,
including letters written by a top militantleader from abroad to his associates inIndia. His interrogation revealed foreign
links and remitance of a large amount ofmoney into India from a foreign source
through the ‘hawala’ channel. Due to its
importance, CBI was asked to take over thecase. One more accused was arrested whose
questioning disclosed that he had gone
abroad and entered into a criminal
conspiracy with some terrorist
sympathisers to develop a terrorist
network in India. The money was to comefrom a foreign source via the ‘hawala’channel. The money did come and thepayment was made in Delhi by a low level‘hawala’ operator. The money so received
was used for purchasing bank drafts in thename of fictitious persons. This was,perhaps, done to keep the identity of therecipients secret so that this money could
be used for terrorist funding without
detection.
During investigation a number of‘hawala’ operators were arrested who
disclosed the names of their principals.
Large scale searches were conducted in thebusiness premises of the main ‘hawala’operators which led to the recovery of Rs.
1.5 crores in cash and a personal diaryshowing payment of about Rs. 58.00 croresto various politicians and bureaucrats in
India. This case is now popularly known
as Jain Hawala Case. The charge-sheets
were filed against several recepients ofhawala money even though the evidence
was not corroborated. While the main case(i.e terrorist funding case) is progressing
well in the Court, the Jain Hawala Case,
which was monitored by the Supreme
Court under its writ jurisdiction, ispresently embroiled in litigation in theDelhi High Court.

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D. Advocate Shanmughsundram
Case
Mr. Shanmughsundram, a practisinglawyer, was brutally attacked in his
residence in May 1995, in a southern State.
The attack came in full view of his personal
staff. The victim was attacked as he wasabout to file a petition in the High Court
against the corrupt activities of a powerfulpolitician. The local police made somearrests but that did not evoke theconfidence of the legal community. The casewas handed over to the CBI by the High
Court. Investigation disclosed that thevictim, though politically affiliated, wastrying to seek judicial intervention. This
angered the politician who had the attackorganised through his underlings. The roleof the local police was suspect in that theyorchestrated the surrender of certain
criminals who were actually not involvedin the attack, but agreed to own
responsibility with a view to shielding apolitically powerful criminal gang. CBIinvestigation established the identity of thereal culprits. They were arrested and sent
to trial. Welding Kumar, the don who had
organised the attack, was himself notpresent but was charged with criminal
conspiracy. All the assailants, including
Welding Kumar, have been convicted forlife. However, the investigation could not
go beyond Welding Kumar as adequate
evidence could not be built up against the
motivators, the third tier. This is a common
problem faced in investigations oforganised crime.
IX. PROBLEMS IN CONTROLEFFORTS
A. Inadequate Legal Structure
There are several difficulties incombatting organised crime. First of all,India does not have a special law to control/
suppress organised crime. Being acontinuing conspiracy, the incidents oforganised crime are dealt with under the110

general conspiracy law and relevant special
Acts. The existing law is inadequate as ittargets individuals and not the criminalgroups or criminal enterprises.
Conspiracies are hatched in darkness andproving them in a court of law is aherculean task. Being a member of thegang of dacoits or thieves is punishable
under the Penal Code, but being a memberof any other criminal gang is not. The prime
purpose of organised crime is money
through muscle power, comprising theofficials operating the criminal justicesystem and the officials and politicians in
power. It is, therefore, imperative that thecriminal group and being its member or
associate, is criminalised, as has been donein many countries.
Similarly, there is need to deprive thecriminal groups of their ill-gotten wealth.
India does not have a consolidated law on
the subject.
The procedural laws in India are grossly
inadequate to deal with organised crime.
Under section 167 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure, the police are mandated to filethe charge sheet within 90 days from thedate of arrest, failing which the accused isliable to be freed on bail. Organised crime
is complicated in nature and has inter-stateand even international ramifications whichmakes it difficult to conduct a thoroughinvestigation within the statutorily
pescribed time frame. This often results inthe charge-sheets being filed on the basisof half-baked investigations. Such cases
often result in acquittals. Besides, the bailprovisions are quite liberal (sections 437
to 439 CrPC). In the early 1970s, theSupreme Court laid down that ‘bail and not
the jail’ is the rule. This emboldened
criminal syndicates and they took
advantage of this judicial dispensation,
frustrating efforts of the law-enforcerers incurbing crime. Further, section 438 of the
CrPC provides for anticipatory bail evenin heinous offences. This has been misusedby politically influential and rich people.

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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Further, a confession made before apolice officer is not admissible under
section 25 of the Evidence Act, but aconfession made before a Customs Officer
or a Income Tax Officer is admissible. As it
is difficult to get the eye-witness evidence
in cases of criminal conspiracy, it makes
the task of the police really very difficult.
Furthermore, the investigating agencies
look for oral, documentary andcircumstantial evidence during
investigation. With rapid advances inscience and technology, forensic science hascome to play an important role in criminal
investigations. However, an accused orsuspect is not legally bound to give his
handwriting, finger prints, blood samples,
photographs and intimate and nonintimate body samples viz hair, saliva,
semen, blood etc to the Investigating
Officer, despite the order of the Court.
Thus, valuable pieces of evidence are lost
due to this legal lacunae.
B. Difficulties in Obtaining Proof
As organised criminal groups are
structured in a hierarchical manner, thehigher echelons of leadership are insulated
from law enforcement. It may be possible
to have the actual perpetrators of crimeconvicted, but it is difficult to go beyond
them in the hierarchy because of rules ofevidence, particularly, non-admissibility ofconfessions made by criminals before thepolice. The witnesses are not willing todepose for fear of their lives and there isno law to provide protection to thewitnesses against organised gangs. The
informers are not willing to come forward
as some kind of stigma is attached to beingan ‘informer’. In crimes of violence, thereis hardly any documentary evidence. In
some crimes like gambling andprostitution, the people in general are
willing participants. Incidents of killing of
witnesses or their being bribed or
threatened do surface from time to time.
Several judges and magistrates were killedin Punjab. These difficulties hamper thecontrol efforts.
C. Slow Pace of Trials & Low
Conviction Rate
‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ is a wellknown maxim. The pace of trials in India
is very slow. Out of 7.12 million cases
pending in the country, 0.77 million havebeen pending trial for more than 8 years(18.6% of the total). The average time oftrial in grave offences varies from State toState but it is quite substantial and may
run into years. This, coupled with otherfactors, has resulted in low conviction rates.
Only about 38% murder and rape cases
result in conviction in India. The
percentage of conviction in dacoity cases isstill lower. Hence, people are losing faith
in the efficacy of the criminal justice systemand have become cynical, apathetic andnon-cooperative in control efforts.
D. Lack of Resources & Training
In our Constitutional frame-work, thepolice are the State’s subject. Investigationof cases, their prosecution and the setting
up of the criminal courts is the
responsibility of the State Government
concerned. Most of the States face aresources crunch and are not in the position
to spare adequate resources for thecriminal justice system agencies. The
number of police personnel posted in police
stations is inadequate. Besides, hardly any
training facilities exist for the investigationof organised crime. Further, there are no
special cells to handle organised crime
investigations. The prosecutors neither
have any special aptitude nor any
specialized training for conducting
organised crime cases. Moreover, they arevulnerable to frequent transfers resulting
in discontinuity in prosecution efforts.
Moreover, the number of courts isinadequate as organised crime case aretried by ordinary courts, there is inordinate
delay in their disposal due to heavy

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backlogs.
E. Lack of Co-ordination
India does not have a national levelagency to co-ordinate the efforts of theState/city police organisations as well as
central enforcement agencies, forcombating organised crime. Further, there
is no agency to collect, collate, analyse,
document and function as a central
exchange of information relating tointernational and inter-state gangs
operating in India and abroad. Similarly,
there is no system of sustained pursuit ofselected gangs at the national and Statelevel. Apart from lack of institutionalframe-work, there are problems of coordination between the Central
Government and the State Governments
and between one State Government andanother State Government due todifferences in political perceptions. This
problem becomes quite acute whendifferent political parties are in power at
the centre and in the States. Thus, there
appears be no sustained effort to combat
organised crime. The information thatcomes into the hands of Central and State
investigating agencies is not exhanged and,if exhanged, not in real time. Thus,valuable clues are lost.
F. Dual Criminality
The crime syndicates do not respectnational boundaries. Certain crimes,
particularly drug trafficking, are plannedin one part of the world and executed inanother. Criminals also move fast from onepart of the globe to another. Different
nations have different legal structures. A
certain act may be ‘crime’ in one country
but not in another. To illustrate, money
laundering is crime in USA and several
European countries but not in India.
Similarly, some countries have laws
against terrorism but others do not.
Extradition of criminals from one country
to another is possible only when the112

principle of dual criminality is satisfied.
India has faced problems in the extraditionof certain fugitive criminals on this count.
G. Criminal, Political &Bureaucratic Nexus
There has been a rapid spread andgrowth of criminal gangs, armed Senas,
drug mafias, smuggling gangs, drug
peddlers and economic lobbiests in the
country which have, over the years,
developed an extensive network of contacts
with the bureaucrats, government
functionaries, politicians, media persons
and democratically elected individuals at
the local level. Some of these syndicatesalso have international linkages, including
with the foreign intelligence agencies. In
certain States like Bihar, Hryana andUttar Pradesh, these gangs enjoy thepatronage of local level politicians cutting
across party lines. Some political leaders
become the leaders of these gangs/armed
senas and over the years get themselves
elected to local bodies, State Assemblies
and even the National Parliament throughdubious means including rigging andkilling of their political rivals. Some of themcollect large funds from the criminal
syndicates for electioneering. Resultantly,
such elements have acquired considerable
political clout seriously jeopardising thesmooth functioning of the administrationand the safety of life and property of thecommon man, causing a sense of despair
and alienation among the people. Due tothe political influence of these syndicates,
the investigating and prosecuting agencies
are finding it extremely difficult to deal
effectively with them.
In view of the gravity of the problem.
The Government of India constituted a
Committee under the Chairmanship of theUnion Home Secretary, N.N. Vohara in
1993. The Vohra Committee observed:“(i)On the basis of extensive experience
gained by our various concerned
intelligence, investigative and108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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enforcement agencies, it is apparent
that crime syndicates and mafiaorganisations have establishedthemselves in various parts of thecountry.
(ii) The various crime syndicate/mafiaorganisations have developed
significant muscle and money powerand established linkages with
Governmental functionaries, politicalleaders and others to be able tooperate with impunity (as recently
exemplified by the activities ofMemon brothers and Dawood
Ibrahim).”
The law enforcement agencies are
finding it difficult to smash criminal
syndicates in the existing legal framework
due to the money power and politicallinkages of the organised criminal gangs.
The problem becomes compounded when
the leaders of the gangs themselves become
Parliamentarians and, sometimes, even
Ministers. A Minister in the Central
Government was prosecuted and convicted(later acquitted by the Apex Court) for
harbouring members of a criminal gang.
Another person who headed a dacoity gang
15 years ago and is still facing trial inseveral dacoity cases, rose to be a memberof the National Parliament. Anotherindividual who is facing trial in 12 serious
crimes, including a murder caseinvestigated by CBI, rose to be a Minister.
When the law breakers become law makers
or political superiors of the law enforcerers,
it is unrealistic to expect the latter to comedown heavily on criminal syndicates.
X. COMBATTING ORGANISEDCRIME
It is the universal experience thatorganised crime is spawned by social
economic and political factors and advancesin science and technology have lent it atransnational character. Organised crime,
like ordinary crime, cannot be rooted out

completely from any society. It cancertainly be kept within reasonable bounds
by a deft mix of legal and administrative
measures, coupled with social and politicalcommitment. International co-operation
can sound its death bell. I now propose tosuggest some measures for combattingorganised crime, keeping in view theIndian ground realities.
A. Strengthening of Criminal Laws
1. Substantive Law
India does not have an special Act tocontrol/supress organised crime. The draftof the Suppression of Organised Crime
Act is on the anvil but it is not known when
it will be passed into law. Organised crimeand money laundering have close nexus
warranting immediate legislativeintervention. The proceeds of Crime andMoney Laundering (Prevention) Act is ata final stage and is likely to be passed into
law soon. Besides, the ancillary laws suchas the Arms Act, 1959; the Explosives Act,
1884; the Explosives Substances Act, 1906;
the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956
need to be strengthened. Punishment
provided for public gambling in the existinglaw is grossly inadequate resulting inrecidivism by the same criminal goups.
2. Procedural Law
Certain amendments need to be madein the Code of Criminal Procedure. The
maximum time for police custody remandin section 167(2) of Code of Criminal
Procedure is 15 days from the date of arrestof an accused. It is our experience that thistime is inadequate for investigatingorganised crime cases having inter-stateand international ramifications. The police
custody remand should be enhanced from15 to 30 days in cases of grave crime.
Further, the police are mandated to file thecharge sheet in 90 days from the date ofarrest of the accused, failing which s/he isliable to be released on bail. This period
needs to be enhanced to 180 days in grave

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crimes for in-depth investigation.
‘Bail and not the jail’ is the rule pursuant
to a Supreme Court order of 1970s.
Legislature should intervene to make thebail provisions more stringent. The
provision for anticipatory bail (sec.438
CrPC) in grave crimes (i.e punishable with
7 years or more) should be deleted. Further,no exparte bail orders should be passed bya court in grave crimes without hearing the
public prosecutor.
3. Evidenciary Law(i) Confession made to a police officer : The
Indian police are legally handicappedin collecting fool-proof evidence against
ordinary criminals and, more so,
against organised criminal gangs due
to certain archaic provisions ofevidenciary law. According to section 25of the Evidence Act, a confession madebefore a police officer is not admissible
in the court. Due to this valuableevidence gathered during questioningof the accused persons is lost. Suchconfessions are admissible in mostcountries of the world. Of course, thisis not to say that the Court should baseconviction only on the un-corroborated
confession of an accused. What is beingargued is that the Court should take
into consideration the confession madeby the accused before a police officer
along with other corroborative evidence
in formulating its opinion.
(ii) Forensic evidence: Forensic evidence
plays an important role in criminal
investigations. The police are duty
bound to collect forensic evidence which
may include the following types:(i) Hand writing ;(ii) Finger/foot prints ;(iii)Blood samples for DNA profiling;(iv) Photographs ; and(v) Intimate and non-intimate bodysamples viz. hair, saliva, semen,
blood etc.
There is no law which legally binds an114

accused to give specimen hand-writing,blood samples, foot prints or intimate
or non-intimate body samples, evenunder the order of the court. The result
is that valuable forensic evidence isbeyond the ambit of the investigating
agency. It is suggested that a provision
should be incorporated in the Criminal
Procedure Code legally binding theaccused to give finger prints, samplesof hand writing, blood samples andintimate and non intimate bodysamples, if required by theinvestigating agency. This will go a longway in building up forensic evidence
against criminal gangs, particularly inviolence-related crime.
(iii) Monitoring of telephones etc : The
telephone facility is freely used by thegangs in organising criminal activities.
Section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act,
1885, empowers the Central
Government or the State Government
to monitor telephones and intercept
telegraphic messages for a period of 60days. However, the evidence thus
gathered is not admissible in the trial.
In the U.S.A, telephones can bemonitored by law enforcement agencies
under the orders of Federal Courts andthe evidence so gathered can be usedin the trial. The Indian Telegraphic Act
should be suitably amended to provide
for admissibility of evidence gatheredby interception of telephonicconversation or telegraphs. Similarly,
the evidence of computer print-out of
telephone calls or fax messages sent or
received on a particular telephone
terminal should be made admissible asevidence.
(iv) Undercover agents : Law enforcement
agencies run under-cover agents inmost countries to gather information
about criminal gangs, study theirmodus operandi and evaluate their
future plans and strategies. This
information is used both for preventive

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
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and investigative purposes. In the USA,the evidence gathered by under coveragents is admissible as evidence whether it is in the form of their oral
testimony or recorded in audio or video
form. Indian law does not permit this.
The information so gathered can beused only as information but not as
evidence. This handicaps the law
enforcement agencies in building up
cast-iron cases against organised
gangs. It is suggested that the law
should be amended to provide foradmissibility of such evidence.
4. Witness Protection Programme
In cases of organised crime andterrorism, the witnesses are reluctant todepose in the open court for fear of reprisals
at the hands of criminal syndicates/
terrorists. The cases of threat or criminal
intimidation of potential witnesses are too
many to be recounted. Some witnesses havealso been killed by the criminal gangs/
terrorists. As the courts go by evidence on
record for establishing the guilt of theaccused, it is essential to protect thewitnesses from the wrath of criminal
gangs. Hence, legal and physical protection
should be provided to crucial witnesses insensitive cases so that they can depose
fearlessly in the court. After the enactmentof Witness Security Reform Act 1984, theUS authorities could secure the convictionof several notorious mafia leaders. The US
Witness Protection Programme, essentiallyinvolves changing the identity of thewitness, relocation, physical protection if
needed, and financial support till such time
as s/he becomes self-supporting, subject tothe condition that s/he deposes truthly in
the Court. It is extremely necessary toprovide protection to witnesses in Indiaalso, which could cover cases of national/
State importance involving criminal
syndicates/terrorists.

5. Mode of Trial
The trial is generally held in the open
court (section 297 CrPC). The court can,however, order in-camera trial if either of
the two parties asks for it or the Court sodesires (section 237(2) CrPC). Despite theexpress provision of law, the Supreme
Court has discontinued this usage. It would
be appropriate to legally mandate incamera trial in organised/terrorist crimes.
6. Confiscating Proceeds of Crime
The main object of organised crime isacquisition of money and through money,
power. It is through money power that thegangs corrupt the criminal justice agencies
and the political leadership. A stage comeswhen the criminal gangs put a question
mark on the existence of the State. It has
already started happening in small pockets
of India. It is, therefore, essential to deprive
the criminal gangs of their ill-gotten wealthvia stringent legislative measures. The
laws relating to confiscation of proceeds ofcrime are strewn in several statutes. Someof the important Acts relating to this are
as follows :(a) Sections 102 and 452 of CrPC ;(b) Sections 111 to 121 of the Customs
Act, 1962;(c) Sections 68 of the Narcotic Drugs andPsychotropic Substances Act, 1985;(d) The Criminal Law (Amendment)
Ordinance, 1944 (Ordinance XXXVIIIof 1994);(e) Foreign Exchange Regulation Act,
1973 (Section 63) ;(f) Smugglers and Foreign Exchange
Manipulations (Forfeiture of
Property) Act, 1976 ; andNotwithstanding the existence of theaforesaid legal provisions, it is common
ground that organised criminal gangs haveacquired huge assets. Annual turnover of
Dawood Ibrahim gang is estimated to beabout 2000 crores a year. Several Bombay
smugglers have invested hundreds of115

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
crores in real estate and other front
businesses. This clearly shows aninadequacy of law. Hence, consolidationand strengthening of laws regarding
seizure/confiscation of proceeds crime isessential. I must, however, add that theprovisions in the Narcotics andPsychotropic Substances Act 1985, on thesubject are quite stringent, but this Act isapplicable only to drug related money andnot to the money amassed through othercrimes.
7. Immunity from Criminal Prosecution
As per section 306 of the CrPC, on therequest of a police officer or a publicprosecutor, a court may tender pardon toan accused at the investigation or trial
stage subject to the condition of making fulland true disclosure of facts andcircumstances concerning an offence. This
provision is applicable in offences
punishable with imprisonment of sevenyears or more. The witnesses are not keen
to turn approvers (State witnesses) as they
have to remain in jail till the conclusion of
the trial. As the trials take years, there islittle incentive for them accept immunityfrom the State. As the evidence inconspiracy cases is rather weak, approver
testimony helps a lot in securingconvictions. It is suggested that the law
should be amended to the effect that the‘approver’ will be released on bail soon after
the conclusion of his testimony in the
Court. This may encourage some accused
to turn approvers.

reasonable burden on the prosecution. The
British Government has updated their lawsby empowering the courts to draw adverse
inferences against the accused in certain
circumstances in Criminal Justice andPublic Order Act, 1994. Keeping in viewthe low conviction rates in grave crimes inIndia, and the reluctance of witnesses todepose against organised criminal
syndicates/terrorists, it would be ofimmense help to the prosecution to raisecertain presumptions against the accused,
including that the following38:(i) If the arms or explosives are recoveredfrom the possession of the accused andthere is reason to believe that similararms or explosives were used in thecommission of an offence, the Court
shall presume that the accusedcommitted the offence.
(ii) If the fingerprints of the accused were
found at the site of the offence onanything, including arms and vehicles,
used in connection with the commissionof an offence, the Court shall presume
that the accused had committed theoffence.
(iii)If the co-accused has made a confession,
the Court shall presume that theaccused had committed the offence.
(iv) If the co-accused has made a confession,
the court shall presume that theaccused committed the offence.
(iv) If the accused had made a confessionof the offence to any person other thana police officer, the court shall presume
that the accused committed the offence.

8. Presumptions against the Accused
An accused is presumed to be innocent
until proved guilty. The entire burden isthus cast on the prosecution to prove theguilt of the accused. Silence of the accusedin a given crime situation or his presenceat the spot of crime at or about the time of
the commisision of crime is not presumed
to be a circumstances against which hemust explain. This casts unfair and un-

9. Need for Speedy Trial
It is said that justice should not only bedone but should be seen to be done.
Punishment should visit the crime withina reasonable time, otherwise the confidenceof the public in the efficacy of criminal
justice institutions will be shattered. India
has been enacting and enforcing modern
laws for over a century now and has evolved
a fair and equitable jurisprudence.

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Nevertheless, about 0.77 million criminalcases have been pending trial for over 8
years. This does not include cases pending
in High Courts all over the country. The
slow pace of trial adversely affects theconviction rate and witnesses suffer frommemory loss or are not available. Even
prosecutors and judges lose interest in old
pending cases. Speedy trial can be achievedby streamlining the procedural laws;
improving the quality of judicial manpower ; increasing the number of courts andgiving modern gadgetry to the courts. Cooperative disposition of the prosecutors anddefence counsels is also essential. Besides,
judges trying organised crime cases and theprosecutors handling them need to be given
specialised training, and continuance intheir respective offices ensured for areasonable length of time.

collating, analysing, documenting andacting as central exchange of information
relating to international gangs operatingin India, the Indian gangs operating abroad
and major gangs operating in the States.
It would also be the duty of the national
body to keep selected major gangs undersurveillance and collect intelligence
regarding them. It would be expected totake up investigation of specific andimportant organised crime cases having
inter-State and internationalramifications, unmindful of the views of theSate Government concerned. The body
would also be responsible for sustained
pursuit of selected gangs having national
and international dimensions until suchtime as the gangs disintegrate and allimportant members are proceeded against
under the law.

B. Improving Co-ordination andSetting Up Specialised Units
1. Setting Up National Level
Coordinating Body
India has a federal structure in which
the States have the exclusive jurisdiction
to investigate and prosecute criminal cases.
The police forces in the States gather
intelligence about organised criminal
activities within their States and generally
do not share it with other States or thecentral agencies. This insular attitude isequally true of central investigative
agencies. It would, therefore, be advisable
to set up a national level co-ordinating bodyoutside the gamut of the present
enforcement agencies. The main functionof this body would be co-ordination between
the police forces of different States and theCentral investigative agencies. It would
also conduct selective operations jointlywith State Police Forces and Central
enforcement agencies for nabbing themembers of criminal gangs, including thoseliving abroad and for seizure of theirfinancial assets and arms. Further, thisbody would be responsible for collecting,

2. Setting Up of Organised Crime Wings
in City Police Organisations
Except for metropolitan cities,
awareness about organised crime in thepolice force is very low. There is no systemof collecting intelligence and pursuinginvestigations in a sustained andsystematic manner. It is suggested thateach State/Metropolitan force should havean Organised Crime Wing, the same at theState level as that of the apex body at thenational level. The Chiefs of the Wing
would keep in constant touch with thenational body and their counterparts inother States/Cities.
3. Setting Up Organised Crime Cells at The
District Level
The district is the basic administrative
unit in India. The work of police stations
is supervised at the district level. However,there is very little awareness aboutorganised crime, its dimensions, and theharmful effect it eventually has on thenational economy and security, at the
district level. As districts are the mostfundamental operational units in the police

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hierarchical structure, it would be useful
to set up organised crime cells directly
under the control of District
Superintendent of Police. Their main job
would be investigation of importantorganised crime cases, collection of
intelligence against the criminal gangs andproper docum entation about theiractivities. They would also keep
surveillance upon important gangsters.
4. Strengthening of Police Stations
Police station are the pivotal points inthe enforcement machinery. No specialised
body like the National Co-ordinatory Body
or organised crime wings at the State levelcan function unless the police stations work
effectively. It is, therefore, imperative tostrengthen the police stations in areas
affected by organised crime. This would bepossible only if they are equipped with welltrained personnel, good systems ofcommunication and means for mobility as
also modern gadgetary necessary forinvestigation.
5. Common Database for Enforcement
Agencies
No mechanism or institutionalarrangement exists for collection of data
regarding organised crime gangs either at
the Central level or the State level. This
hampers investigative efforts andplanning. It is suggested that a common
data base be built up and stored in acomputer accessible to all enforcement
agencies, through networking of thecomputers. National Crime Records
Bureau could take up this job as it has thetechnical wherewithal to do so.
6. Education and Training
One of the weakest links in the struggle
against organised crime is education andtraining at the local level. Public
administrators, who are aware thatorganised crime exists in their community,
are not spending sufficient time in118

educating and training citizens, law
enforcement officers and other members in
the criminal justice system. Consequently,
local persons with interest in curbing
organised crime are left to their own
resources in securing information about
those engaged in organised crime. There
are three modes for transmitting
information to those concerned withorganised crime control. They are (i)education in academic institutions (ii)specialised training for law enforcement
officers and (iii) greater public co-operation.
To implement one mode of learning without
the other will not produce the desired levelof information about the criminal
confederations.
It would be desirable to impart intenseand highly select training to the police,
probation officers, judges and public
procecutors about the impact of organised
crime on the society, the intelligencesystem, the statutes relating to organised
crime, technology for investigation and thevarious types of organised crime andstrategies for combating it.
7. Defending Honest Officers
There is strong evidence of a criminalpolitical nexus. The officers who have taken
initiative to fight organised crime aresometimes transferred leading to theirdemoralisation. Crime syndicates bythemselves or in concert with politicians
sometimes launch a campaign of characterassassination against honest officers,
discrediting them. It would, therefore, bedesirable that officers of integrity andprofessional competence be posted inorganised crime prone areas and given a
reasonable length of tenure, say 3 years.
This would immunise them from themachinations of unscrupulous politiciansand organised crime leaders.
C. Enhancing International Cooperation
We are living in an era of “globalisation

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERSof crime”. Speedy means of communication
enable the transnational criminals to fleefrom one country to another within hours
after the commission of crime, and toorganise crimes spanning continents via
the telephone. Illicit trafficking in narcotics
drugs, illicit immigration, proliferation ofillicit arms and smuggling of contrabands
are the main transnational crimes affecting
India. According to Section 3 and 4 of thePenal Code, any Indian national
committing a crime abroad is liable to betried in India. Similarly, any foreignercommitting a crime in India is also liable
to be tried in India. It is not possible tobring the fugitive criminals to justice
without cooperation of the countries where
they are living. In fact, international
cooperation is the key to suppress transnational crimes. The international cartels
comprising of criminals of various ethnicity
regions and religions require response by
the international community.
International cooperation may entail
various legal and governmental
interventions.
1. Speedy Extradition of Fugitive
Criminals
Speedy extradition can be a very
effective method of bringing the fugitive
criminals to justice. Extradition
proceedings presuppose the existence of an
extradition treaty between the Requesting
State and the Requested State. Extradition
requests must satisfy the principles of dual
criminality and speciality. Besides, theidentity of the fugitive criminal must be
firmly established by the Requesting State.
India has signed extradition treaties
with several countries. Such countries fallin three categories. The first category
consists of 33 Commonwealth countries
with which India has extradition
arrangements, even though no formal
extradition treaties have been signed. In
the second category falls countries such as
Bhutan, Belgium, Nepal, Netherlands,

Canada, Switzerland, United Kingdom and
USA with which extradition treaties havebeen signed. The third category consists ofcountries with which the treaties have beenrenegotiated. USA is one such country. Old
treaty of 1931 with USA was renegotiatedlast year but is yet to be ratified. This
Treaty provides for a ‘political offence’clause, excluding some crimes such as
murder of the Head of the State, aircraft
hijacking offences, acts of aviation sabotage
and crimes against internationallyprotected persons including diplomats,hostage taking and drug related offences
etc. The Treaty also provides for a waiverclause which means that if the extraditee
agrees to be extradited, the Requested
State shall not go through the motionsprescribed in law. India is negotiating
extradition treaties with several countries,
including the Russian Federation,
Germany and UAE.
The basic problem with the extradition
treaties is the ‘political offence’ clause. The
world ‘political’ is open to variedinterpretations both by the extradition
courts as well as by the executive authorityof the Requested State. Terrorist violence
is often motivated by some kind of politicalconsiderations. If this logic is accepted,
then it would not be possible to seek
extradition of any fugitive terrorist fromabroad. It may not be possible to totally
exclude ‘political offence’ clauses from theexisting treaties or the treaties which are
under negotiation, but the scope of thisclause should be narrowed down as muchas possible. Article 1 of the SAARC
Convention excludes certain terrorist
offences from the ‘political offence’ clauseviz, murder, manslaughter, kidnapping,hostage taking and offences relating to firearms, weapons, explosives and dangerous
substances. This principle could be adopted
in bilateral and multilateral arrangements
at the international level. This issue should
be taken up in the international arena andeffort made to narrow down the scope of

119

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
the ‘political exception’ clause, if noteliminate it all together.
India has succeeded in securing
extradition of several notorious criminals
including Om Prakash Srivastava fromSingapore in 1995. We also succeeded in
the securing extradition of two top
terrorists from the USA last year. However,the case of another two is pending in the
US courts since the last 10 years. Recently,
two Karsen executives, namely, Tuncay
Alankus and Cihan Karanci, involved in
Rs.133 croses Urea import scam, wereextradited to India from Sweden. India has
also extraditied certain criminals to the
UK, USA and other countries.
As extraditioin is an important
instrument to bring fugitive criminals tojustice, the laws and procedures prevailingin different countries need to be
standardised on the basis of the model
extradition treaty drafted by UNO.
2. Deportation
It is our experience that extradition is atime consuming and lengthy process,where, apart from satisfying the legal
requirements of the Requested State, thejudicial requirements of a foreign court
have also to be satisfied. On the other hand,deportation of an undesirable alien is swift
and speedy. India had sought extraditionof a notorious drug smuggler Iqbal Mirchi
from UK in 1996 but the request was
turned down as the Extradition Magistrateheld that the evidence on record was not
sufficient to establish a prima facie case.
This often happens in transnational crimes
wherein the principal offenders organise
crimes through telephone systems inforeign lands. After the failure of theextradition proceedings, the Governmentof India cancelled his passport and, thus,
he became an illegal alien in UK. Somecountries have deported Indians back to thecountry on finding them without valid
travel documents and we have also
reciprocated in equal measure.

120

As deportation is one of the easiest
methods of getting rid of undesirable
elements, standardised and universally
acceptable norms should be evolved in theinternational community in this regard.
3. Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance
Assistance from foreign countries isoften required for effective investigationand prosecution of transnational crimes.
Help is required in the matter of collecting
information; collecting evidence during
investigation; identification and location of
persons and service of documents on them;access to records of financial institutions;production of foreign witnesses; conducting
searches and seizures; forfeiture ofproceeds of crime (including money
deposited in banks); transfer of prisoners
to give evidence or assist in criminal
investigations. Help is also sought from aforeign country in the execution of Letter
Rogatories. India has enabling provisions
in the Criminal Procedure Code (SECTION
105) in the above matter (166-A and 166-Bof the Code) .
India’s experience shows that the
response from foreign countries, with few
exceptions, has generally been positive.
India has made Mutal Legal Assistancearrangements with several countries in the
recent past. Some of the recently concluded
Agreements on Mutal Legal Assistance are- India and UK (1992); India and Russia(1993); India and Bulgaria (1994); India
and Canada (1994); India and Egypt(1995); India and China (1996) and India
and Oman (1996). We are also in theprocess of signing Mutal Legal AssistanceAgreements with Kazakistan, Poland,
Slovak Republic, Italy France, Hong Kong,
Greece, and Georgia.
The agreement between India and UK
provides for assistance in investigation andprosecution of crime and tracing, restraint
and confiscation of the proceeds andinstruments of crime (including crimes
involving currency transfers) and terrorists

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS
funds.
The agreement between India andCanada is quite comprehensive and covers
all types of crimes, including crimes
relating to taxation, duties, customs andinternational transfer of capital or
payment. The assistance includes :(i) measures to locate, restrain, forfeit
or confiscate the proceeds of crime ;(ii) taking of evidence and obtaining ofstatements of persons :(iii) provision of information documents
and other records including criminaland judicial records ;(iv) location of persons and objects
including their identification ;(v) search and seizure ;(vi) delivery of property, including
lending of exhibits ;(vii) making detained persons and others
available to give evidence or assist
investigations ; and(viii)Service of documents, including
documents seeking attendance of
persons.
Our arrangements with UK and Canada
are working well. Canada has deported aterrorist to India recently. We also assisted
the Canadians in the Kanishka Bomb Blast
Case. Such bilateral agreements go a longway in effective investigation andprosecution.
4. SAARC Convention for Suppression ofTerrorism:Multilateral Arrangements
Apart from bilateral arrangements,
India has also made multi-lateralarrangements for suppression of terrorism
with its neighbors. India is a signatory to
the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Convention for
S u p p r e s s i o n o f Te r r o r i s m . S A A R C
countries consist of Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri
Lanka. Pursuant to the SAARC
Convention, India enacted the SAARC
Convention (Suppression of Terrorism) Act,

1993. It is important to mention that in
Article 1 of the SAARC Convention,
terrorist activities have ben excluded fromthe ‘political offence’ clause for the purposesof extradition. Extraditable crimes include
unlawful seizure of aircraft; unlawful acts
against the safety of civil aviation; crimes
against internationally protected persons,
including diplomatic agents; and common
law offences like murder, kidnapping,hostage taking and offences relating to firearms, weapons, explosives and dangerous
substances when used as a means toperpetrate indiscriminate violence
involving death or serious bodily injury to
persons or serious damage to property.
It would thus appear that SAARC
Convention is an improvement on bilateral
Extradition Treaties and Agreements on
Mutal Legal Assistance in that the scopeof ‘political offence’ has been drasticallyreduced.
5. Role of Interpol
Interpol has serviced law enforcers allover the world in their fight against crimein last 75 years of its existence. ‘The Red
Corner Notice’ for the arrest of fugitive
criminals are generally executed byInterpol. Sometimes difficulty arises when
the requested Interpol does not haveenabling provisions in the domestic laws
for effecting arrests. Section 41 of the
Indian Criminal Procedure Code empowers
a police officer to arrest on the basis of a
Red Corner Notice. Similar provisions need
to be incorporated in the criminal laws ofcountries where such provisions do notexist. Secondly, help in investigations issometimes declined by some Interpols on
the perceived ground of the offence being‘political’ in character. This problem isgoing to persist in the forseeable future but
its impact can be drastically reduced if theprinciples ennunciated in the SAARC
Convention are adopted at the regional andeven international level regarding grave
offences i.e terorism, organised crime etc.

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
D. Political Commitment
Incidence of organised crime is
proportional to the will of the people totolerate it. If there is strong politicalcommitment, it can be suppressed bylegislative action, strengthening of
criminal justice system and building up ofstrong public opinion against it. Organised
crime thrives when political commitment
is lacking. The Vohra Committee Report
has exposed the linkages between
unscrupulous politicians and the criminal
syndicates. A segment of politicians, cutting
across party lines, are dependent onorganised crime figures for financing theirelections as well as giving them muscle
power for rigging elections or overawing
their political opponents. One of the waysof breaking the nexus between thecriminals and politicians would be to enact
stringent laws regarding election funding,with a view to preventing the tainted
money from whatever source, includingfrom the crime syndicates, seeping into thepolitical system. Once this happens, people
are likely to be elected to the State andNational Parliament that would have no
obligation towards the organised crime
figures and are likely to have higher
political commitment to stamp out
organised crime. Another method would beto amend the election laws to prevent,apart from convicts, those against whomcharges have been framed by the court in
at least in two grave crimes, from runningfor elective offices. This would impel thepolitical figures to keep themselves at asafe distance from the crime figures andthereby help in cleansing the politicalprocess. It needs to be reiterated thatenforcement action, however efficient, is
not by itself adequate to stamp out
organised crime.
E. Public AwarenessThe surest means of curbing organised
crime is to involve people in its prevention
and investigation and to build up public

122

opinion against it through the print andelectronic media, workshops, seminars,
and by socially boycotting organised crime
figures. It is not unusual to see leaders ofcriminal syndicates acquiring Robin Hoodimages and becoming legends in their life
time. Quite a few have become Membersof the State Assemblies and the National
Parliament. Some have become Ministers
in the State Governments and occupy otherelected offices. They can be prevented fromoccupying high political offices byheightened public awareness.
F. Role of Mass Media
Mass media-both print and electronic
media-can play an important role in
exposing organised crime and help build
public opinion against it. Indian mass
media has been doing this job quite welland everyday we read lurid accounts of theactivities of crime syndicates in thenewspapers and magazines. Notablenewspapers and magazines have also
taken to investigative journalism in thisfield. In this process, some media persons
have suffered at the hands of the criminals
but undaunted by it, they are going ahead
with the exposes. This is a very heartening
trend and must be encouraged.
XI. CONCLUSION
Organised crime is first of all a domestic
problem and, when unchecked, it assumes
a transnational character. Organised
crime succeeds so long as nations permit it
to succeed. The first and foremost step inour control efforts should be to keep‘incident’ or ordinary crime withinreasonable bounds by keeping criminal
elements under reentless law-enforcement
pressure. If we succeed in this effort, we
would have obviated or at least diminishedthe possibility of unattached criminal networks and the phenomenon of organised
crime. Organised crime, depending upon
its intensity, spread and dimensions, must

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS
be combated by a deft mix of strengtheningof criminal laws and criminal justicesystem; institutionalising a national andState level co-ordinating mechanism andinvolving the mass media in control efforts.
Law enforcement, however efficient, cannot
succeed by itself without strong politicalcommitment. This pre-supposes exclusionof criminal elements and their political
sympathisers from elected public offices.
As organised crime is for the acquisition ofmoney power, it is imperative that the flowof money to organised criminal groups isdried up through stringent legislative andenforcement action.
A democracy has inherent infirmities
which manifest themselves in thefunctioning of criminal justice agencies.
Despite best efforts, domestic crime islikely to spill into the international arenaand often does. Hence, the need forinternational co-operation in suppressing
it in the form of expeditious extradition of
fugitive criminals, deportation ofundesirable aliens; mutual legal assistancein investigations and prosecutions andspeedy execution of Red Corner notices
i s s u e d b y I n t e r p o l . F u r t h e r, t h einternational community must put theirheads together to harmonise extraditionand deportation laws and to narrow thescope of ‘political offences’ in extradition
laws and the Interpol charter.
The fight against organised
transnational crime is a formidable task,
but heightened public consciousness,increasing governmental concern andmutually dependent interests of theinternational community do give us a rayof hope.

123

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4

50

(1) PERMANENT MEMBERS PAID ON MONTHLY BASIS-work or no work.
(2) TEMPORARY MEMBERS PAID ON JOB BASIS.
(3) WEAPONS ISSUED THROUGH INTERMEDIARIES FOR JOBS AND RETURNED WHEN JOB IS OVER.

TEMPORARYPERMANENT4PERMANENT

3SHOOTERS/EXTORTIONISTS/KIDNAPPERS

2

SHOOTERS/EXTORTIONISTS/KIDNAPPERS (4 to 5)

50

CAPTAIN/SUPERVISOR-1

3

CAPTAIN/SUPERVISOR-1

2

CHHOTE SHAKIL

NOOR

IQBAL

MUSTQUEENABU SALIMANISDAWOOD

APPENDIX IRESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54

Rasool Khan Patti
Sharif Khan
Abdul Razak

Abdul Wahab
Abdul Qadir
Altaf Hussain

Rasool Khan Patti
Sharif Khan
Abdul WahabContract
Killings

Smuggling

Abdul Watab
Yusuf Godhrawala
Om Prakash Puoiahi

IsmailRasool Khan I
Abdul Razak

Land Deals

Mohd. Hussain Barejia
H. N. Jhala
Hasan I ala

PublicRalations

Rasool Khan Patti
Sattar Battcry
Nasir Luhar
Adam Mandali

HawalaRasool Khan Patti
Abdul Wahab
Mohd Fighter
Hussain Bhuria
Ahmcd PainterYusuf Laplap

Communal
Riots

Sharif Khan
Mohd Fighter
I alia Dhobi

Sharif Khan
Abdul Wahab
Gulal

Extortion &Kidnapping

Parallel Justice
SystemRasool Khan Patti
Sharif Khan
Sattar Battery
Nasir Luhar
Sajid Ali @ DannyRauf

ISI And J&K
Linkages

Rasool Khan Patti
Gulal
Rafiq@ R.D.
Rauf
Sharif Khan
Wahid Khan

Abdul KhurdooshLiaquat Master
Sharif Khan
Junez Khan
Jahangir Khan

Arms &
Explosives

Vehicle Theft

Drugs

Bootlegging

Latif

DawoodORGANISATIONAL CHART

APPENDIX II

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS

125

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
APPENDIX III
COUNTRY

Gun Running

Militancy/
Terrorism✕✓✓✓

Narcotics
Trafficking
✓
✓
✓
✓

Crime

Australia✓✓
Cambodia✓✓
Indonesia
✕
India
✓
✓
Japan
✓
Macau
✓
✕
✓
✓
Malaysia✓✓
Myanmar✓✓✓✓Phillipines✓✓✓
Sri Lanka✓✓✓✓
Taiwan✓✕✓✓Thailand✓✕✓Latin America✓✓✓✓
Central America✓✓✓✓
United States✓✓✓✓
Vietnam✓✕✓✓(Sources:Patterns of Global Terrorism, US State Department, International Narcotics
Control Strategy Report.)126

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERSREFERENCES
1. Crime in India : National Crime
Records Bureau, New Delhi (1996).
2. Crime in India : National Records
Bureau, New Delhi (1995).
3. Ibid (1995)
4. Ibid (1995)
5. Ibid (1995)
6. Ibid (1995)
7. Criminal Justice : Problems andPerspectives by S. Venugopal Rao (page131).
8. Task Force Report - The Presidents’Commission on Law Enforcement
Administration of Justice, 1967 (page1).
9. Formation of Criminal Gangs in Big
Cities by VK Saraf, former
Commissioner of Police, Bombay(unpublished study sponsored by theGovernment of India).
10. Kefauver Committee concluded that :“(a) T h e r e i s a n a t i o n w i d e c r i m e
syndicate known as the Mafia,
whose tentacles are found in manylarge cities. It has internationalramifications which appear mostclearly in connection with thenarcotics traffic.
(b) Its leaders are usually found incontrol of the most lucrative rackets
in their cities.
(c) T h e r e a r e i n d i c a t i o n s o f acentralised direction and control ofthese rackets but leadership appears
to be in a group rather than by asingle individual.
(d) The Mafia is the cement that helps
to bind the Costello-Adonis-Lansky
syndicate of New York and AccardoGuzik-Fischeddi syndicate ofChicago as well as smaller criminal
gangs and individual criminals
throughout the country. These
groups have kept in touch with
Luciano since his deportation fromthis country.

(d) The domination of the Mafia is based
fundamentally on ‘muscle’ and‘murder’ . The Mafia is a secretconspiracy against law and orderwhich will ruthlessly eliminate
anyone who stands in the way of its
success in any criminal enterprisein which it is interested. It will
destroy anyone who betrays its
secrets. It will use any means
available-political influence, bribery,
intimidation etc. to defeat any
attempt on the part of law
enforcement to touch its figures orto interfere with its operations”.
11. Op. cit note 8 (page 1)
12. The Politics and Economics of Crime
by Herbert E. Alexander and Gerald E.
Caiden (page 9). The Task Force listed
the following seven characteristics oforganized crime:(i) “Organised crime is a conspiratorial
crime.
(ii) Organised crime has profit as its
primary goal.
(iii) Organised crime is not limited toillegal enterprises or unlawful
services but includes sophisticatedactivities as well.
(iv) Organised crime is predatory, using
intimidation, violence corruption
and appeals to greed.
(v) Organised crime’s conspiratorialgroups are well disciplined andincorrigible.
(vi) Organised crime is not synonymouswith the Mafia but knows no ethnic
bounds.
(vii)Organised crime excludes politicalterrorists, being politicallyconservative, not radical.”13. Organised Crime : Concept and Control
by Denny F. Pace and Jimmie C. Styles(page 248).
14. Op cit note 12 (page1).
15. T h e P r e s i d e n t s C o m m i s s i o n o nOrganised Crime, 1986 (pages 26-32).
16. Section 2 of the Act defines a gang as :127

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54“Gang means a group of persons, who
acting either singly or collectively byviolence or threat or show of violence
or intimidation or coercion or otherunlawful means, with the object ofgaining undue political, physical,
economic or other advantage forhimself or any other person, indulge inanti-social activities, namely:(i) offences punishable under Chapter
XVI or Chapter XVII or Chapter
XXII of the IPC ; or(ii) distilling, manufacturing, storing,transporting, importing, exporting,selling or distributing any liquor
or intoxicating or dangerous drugs
or other intoxicants or narcotics or
cultivating any plant incontravention of any of theprovisions of the UP Excise Act,1910 or the Narcotics, Drugs andPsychotropic Substances Act, 1985
or any other law for the time being
in force; or(iii) occupying or taking possession of
immovable property otherwise
than in accordance with law, or
setting up false claims for title orpossession of immovable property
whether in himself or any otherperson; or(iv) preventing or attempting toprevent any public servant or any
witness from discharging his
lawful duties ; or(v) offences punishable under the
Suppression of Immoral Traffic in
Woman and Girls Act,1956 (ActNo.104 of 1956) ; or(vi) offences punishable under section
3 of the Public Gambling Act, 1867; or(vii) preventing or disturbing thesmooth running by any person of
his lawful business, profession,
trade or employment or any otherlawful activity connected
therewith ; or128(viii)activities enumerated in clause (b)of Section 2 of the Uttar Pradesh
Control of Goondas Act, 1979 ; or(ix) offences punishable under section
171-E of the Indian Penal Code orin preventing or obstructing any
public election being lawfully heldby physically preventing the votersfrom exercising electoral rights ; or(x) inciting others to resort to violence
to disturb communal harmony ; or(xi) creating panic, alarm or terror in
public ; or(xii) t e r r o r i s i n g o r a s s a u l t i n gemployees or owners or occupiersof public or private undertakings
or factories and causing mischiefin respect of their properties ; or(xiii)inducing or attempting to induce
any person to go to foreigncountries on false representationthat any employment, trade orprofession shall be provided to him
in such foreign country ; or(xiv)kidnapping of abducting any
person with intent to extort
ransom ; or(xv) diverting of otherwise preventing
any aircraft or public transport
vehicles from following its
scheduled course.”
A gangster “means a member or leader
or organiser of a gang and includes any
person who abets or assists in theactivities of a gang enumerated inclause (b), whether before or after thecommission of such activities, or
harbours any person who has indulged
in such activities.”
17. The Indian Mafia by S. K. Ghosh.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Formation of Criminal Gangs in Major
cities by VK Saraf (an unpublishedstudy sponsored by the Government ofIndia).
21. Ibid.

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS
22. Based on the data collected from the
Office of the Commissioner of Police,
Delhi.
23. Based on the report of Joint Task Force,
Karnataka.
24. Based on a paper prepared by thisauthor (unpublished).
25. Based on a report prepared by the
Office the Commissioner of Police,
Ahmedabad.
26. Based on the investigation conductedby CBI.
27. Narcotics Control Bureau Report(1995).
28. Data compiled by the Departmental of
Revenue, Government of India, New
Delhi.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Uncivil Wars by Med Marwah (page390).
33. Ibid.
34. Paper on ‘Proliferation and Smugglingof Light Weapons within the Region’ by
Tara Kartha Reseach Fellow, IDSA,New Delhi.
35. Op cit. note 32.
36. Op cit. note 17.
37. Based on a paper published by theauthor titled ‘Crime Scenario in India: Need to Strengthen Criminal Laws’in CBI Bulletin (1996).
38. Such presumptions could be raised
under Section 21 of the Terrorist andDisruptive Activities (Prevention) Act,
1987, which was allowed to lapse in
1995 and has not been substituted byanother anti-terrorism law.

129