25 Years of 1993 Mumbai blast: Underworld influence drops by 80 percent

Mumbai: The strict vigil of Maharashtra police and the fast adoption of technologies in its cyber cell has broken the ribs of underworld gangsters in the last 25 years. The former DGP of Maharashtra Arvind Inamdar believes the influence of underworld has been reduced by 80 percent but underlined that police need to continuously monitor movements of underworld as ‘it may revive’ to create terror like 1993 bomb blasts.

He further said the crime pattern has changed in the last 25 years. “The Maharashtra police, who became very sensitive after 1993 serial blasts, have taken very stern action against the underworld. The strict vigil of Maharashtra police as well as Central agencies has broken the ribs of organised crime. Besides this, law of MCOCA was enacted in 1999 to overpower the influence of underworld. So, by now 70-80 percent of gangsters are either inside jail or they have become very old or they have passed away. In my days, almost everyday there was shoot-out but now we hardly read about such incident. But the police have to keep their hawk-eye on them because anytime they can raise their heads to create terror like 1993 blasts that rocked the country,” Inamdar told the Free Press Journal.

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Last week the CBI arrested Dawood Ibrahim’s close aide Farooq Takla who provided logistics support to 1993 blasts co-accused in Dubai from where they travelled to other places for getting arms and ammunition and sending them from Dubai to Pakistan for training in handling explosives.

“The law must be supreme to ensure proper law and order; and justice must be done in a very short time. It should not take so many years. The severity of the punishment matters but certainty of punishment matters the most. All the co-accused (in 1993 blasts) must know that one day they will be caught like Takla.

The gangsters, by now, have learnt that it is not easy to come out of the hands of Indian law. But simultaneously, we need to strengthen the judiciary and the entire process,” added Inamdar. Now the bigger challenge before police is to control the white collar crimes and economic offences, said Inamadar and added, “We need to break the nexus of business tycoons, bureaucrats and politicians to stop people like Nirav Modi to loot India. People like Nirav Modi is more dangerous than Dawood.” Speaking on the same line the encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma said Dawood and his henchmen have been providing logistics support to terrorists to create terror in Mumbai. “Earlier the police was dependent on informants but now we are using advanced technologies to keep track of them. Our cyber cell is continuously upgrading across Maharashtra,” said Sharma, who is a senior police inspector from the Thane Anti Extortion Cell.

Also Read: 1993 Mumbai Blasts: Injuries cured, but wounds remain fresh for the victims

The underworld used to make huge money from the film industry by extorting film producers/directors. “The underworld was into extortion racket in Mumbai and adjoining areas. Earlier it was easy for them to extort money from film industry but their extortion business has been wiped out after corporate firms started investing in the industry,” said Sharma, who arrested Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar from the home of his deceased sister, Haseena Parker in Mumbai’s Nagpada last year. The remaining 20 percent of gangsters like Suresh Pujari, Ravi Pujari are creating fear among people.

25 years on, blasts victim still awaits compensation

Kirti Ajmera, a survivor of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, is yet to receive any sort of compensation from the government. “I haven’t recovered fully. Congress leaders of that time had promised to help me, but eventually, they did not and stopped answering my calls too. Media should also follow up such cases which they did not,” the victim told ANI. Ajmera, a 61-year-old resident of the Mumbai suburb Malad, has reportedly splurged lakhs of rupees on numerous operations he has undergone for the treatment of the injuries he suffered during the bomb blasts. He took to Twitter to draw the attention of fellow Gujarati Narendra Modi to the matter. “Sir I am KIRTI Ajmera, #VictimOf1993BombBlast undergone many surgeries and still spending lacs of rupees to remove glass splinters from my body, even after 25 years I hv not recd. Justice or Single Penny of Compensation till date #INeedJustice #VictimKirtiAjmera ,” he tweeted.