A rogue and vagabond

Surat: Lalu Jalim alias Amit Rajput, a vagabond in Amroli, turned into a notorious gangster of the city when a video of a murder by him and his associates went viral on social media in April 2017. He attacked a team of detection of crime branch when it went to arrest him. Someone created a fan page on Facebook and soon he had a number of fans and his gang too kept growing despite he being lodged in Lajpore Central Jail (LCJ) on murder charges.
Rajput again had a brush with law when he came out of jail on a temporary bail in March and took part in a Rama Navami procession in Limbayat. He allegedly fired from an airgun in an area having mixed population of different communities and was arrested. But no action was taken to send him back to jail for involvement in criminal activity while on bail.

Within days, his gang started a fight with rival gang of Hasim Pathan and it triggered a communal riot in Amroli on March 30. Groups threw stones at each other and damaged properties. There was a heavy police bandobast thereafter. Sources said members of Rajput’s gang were waiting for him to come out of jail to attack Hasim’s gang.

Rajput moved around in the city nonchalantly with his gang members and police failed to keep an eye on him. This when city police commissioner Satish Sharma had issued a circular asking cops to keep a watch on prisoners coming out on temporary bail.

Sharma said, “I will have to inquire if Rajput violated bail conditions in the offence registered in Limbayat. No negligence on the part of police have been found in the case. I have instructed police to remove unauthorized encroachments that led to dispute among two groups.”