A haven for fugitives?

DOES the fact that Imam Ali and four of his associates were run to ground in Bangalore point to the increasing use of the city by terrorists, criminals and other fugitives as a getaway destination? Curiously, many of these elements have also faced their nemesis in Bangalore.

Those who over a period of time have either chosen to head for Bangalore or have been apprehended in the city include Charles Sobhraj, who was wanted internationally for an assortment of crimes, and United Liberation Front of Asom activists, in the 1970s; Sikh terrorists on the run from Punjab, who took refuge in the city and looted two petrol bunks on its outskirts in the 1980s; Sivarajan and Shuba, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam operatives who used a house in Konanakunte in Bangalore as their hideout after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991; Sushil Sharma, the Youth Congress leader who is accused of killing his wife Naina Sahni in New Delhi and who was arrested at Hoskote near Bangalore in 1995; the North India-based Babloo Srivastava's gang, which was arrested in Bangalore in 1998; the abductors of industrialist N.K. Jaipuria from Punjab, who were caught in 1998 when they began to operate from Bangalore; alleged Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operatives of the group headed by Rashid Malbari, who were caught in 1998 after they were involved in a shootout; three members of the Chhota Rajan gang, who were gunned down in an encounter with the Mumbai Police near the Bangalore airport in 2001; the accused in the church blasts that rocked South India last year, who were caught in Bangalore; Kareem Lala, the alleged kingpin behind the multi-crore rupee fake stamp paper racket, who was apprehended by the Bangalore Police in 2001; and the naxalite-turned-extortionist Chinni Sudarshan, who was gunned down by sleuths of the Andhra Pradesh Police on the outskirts of the city. Why, even the forest brigand Veerappan himself was in Bangalore, actually taken into custody before being released.

Senior police officers in Karnataka, however, feel that Bangalore, unlike Mumbai (where fugitives can virtually melt into the local population) and even to a lesser extent Delhi, has not become a base for criminal/terrorist elements. Said an officer who has headed the intelligence wing of the Karnataka Police: "These elements, especially the more organised ones, come, stay and go. While there is no doubt that they do have the support of local elements in securing food, shelter, transport, communication equipment and money, none of them has been able to establish a base in Karnataka. The contacts with locals are on a casual basis. It is also possible that since most of these local contacts have not `exposed' themselves in the context of any criminal activity, so their names might not figure in police records."

Among the factors that make Bangalore "a most wanted destination" are its relative proximity to the Tamil Nadu border and to Chennai and the good rail and road links between the two cities, the ready availability of houses at relatively low rents on the city's outskirts, the average Bangalorean's could-care-less attitude and, most crucially, the city's cosmopolitan character. The presence of sizable Urdu-, Tamil-, Telugu- and Malayalam-speaking communities also make Bangalore a convenient destination for fugitives from places where these languages are spoken.

Said an Assistant Commissioner of Police: "This allows criminals not only to get support from the respective communities but also to mingle better. One of Imam Ali's co-accused in the 1993 bomb blast that brought down the RSS' Chennai headquarters, Mukhthiyar Ahmed, was a resident of Shivajinagar in Bangalore. Ahmed was also the leader of an organisation known as the Islamic Swayamsevak Sangh. We know that Imam Ali had contacts in Bangalore."

Though Bangalore is increasingly used by fugitives, Karnataka is yet to have an elite commando force (in the wake of the Imam Ali operation the Karnataka Home Minister has promised to raise one) or an effective intelligence network. The State does have an Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) set up in June 1993 to gather intelligence on terrorist groups but it has been nicknamed `the one-man army', given that all it has is an officer, although he is of the rank of Inspector-General of Police. So much so that most of the high-profile arrests of fugitives in Bangalore have been masterminded by police officers from beyond Karnataka'a borders.