Rohtak (Haryana), Jul 3 (IANS): Police will monitor over five dozen villages in southern Haryana for "being too crime-prone".
Police recently identified nearly 65 crime-prone villages in the four districts of Rohtak, Sonepat, Panipat and Jhajjar - all falling under the Rohtak police range - after researching the crime history of the villages.
Police will not only keep a close tab on the activities of residents of these villages but also plan to rope in village leaders and social activists to curb the disturbing trend of crime in these villages, said Alok Mittal, inspector general of police (IGP), Rohtak range.
"The motive behind categorising the villages is to pay special attention to those villages which are notorious, in terms of crime, due to constant involvement of their residents in criminal activities," Mittal told IANS.
He maintained that all the criminal activities were directly associated with personal enmity or property disputes and political rivalry.
"These disputes have now taken the shape of gang wars in several villages, persistently claiming lives of youths ," the IGP said.
"Of the 65 identified villages, the highest number of 22 crime-prone villages are from Panipat district, 18 from Jhajjar, 14 from Rohtak and 11 from Sonepat. A special strategy would be followed to curb criminal activities and restore social harmony there," said Mittal.
In Haryana's Jhajjar district, Mandhothi village has reported nearly 40 murders involving two groups of families in the past nearly two decades. Over 110 people from the village are accused in murder cases.
Kaaror village in Rohtak, the home district of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has witnessed a gang war between various groups in the last over a decade, police said.
Residents of Mokhra village near Kalanaur in Rohtak district last year prevented everyone, including police, from entering the village after an ex-legislator was booked in a murder case. The police could not enter the village for several days.
In a recent communique to police chiefs of all four districts, the IGP asked the officers to prepare a detailed report about personal enmity, poll rivalry and property disputes of the identified villages, besides names of all those villagers who indulged in any criminal activities.
The reports would be used to prepare a strategy for counter-measures.
"The district police chiefs have been directed to collect information about all pending cases of the villages concerned and those villagers who are out of jail either on bail or parole and having firearms and other weapons," said Mittal, adding that the police chiefs were asked to send the information to him in a month.