By IANS
Lucknow : After gunning down Shiv Kumar Patel alias Dadua, the Uttar Pradesh police have now launched a manhunt for another feared dacoit, Ambika Patel, better known as Thokia.
This follows directives by Chief Minister Mayawati, who instructed senior police officials at a closed door meeting Friday to “eliminate Thokia”.
Mayawati convened a meeting of all district superintendents of police and other senior officials of the department to review the law and order situation after three months of her rule in the state.
“You have done a commendable job by ridding people of the three-decade-long terror of Dadua. Now you must ensure that Thokia too meets the same fate,” the chief minister said without mincing words.
Thokia is responsible for killing half a dozen policemen in an ambush, barely 12 hours after the elimination of Dadua July 22 in the dense forests of Chitrakoot close to the Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border.
“It was a retaliatory move by Thokia, who carries a reward of Rs.300,000 on his head. A simultaneous operation was on against him while another team was tracking down Dadua,” Uttar Pradesh additional director general of police (law and order) Brij Lal told IANS here.
The chief minister further directed the police to launch a sustained campaign against the major mafia gangs operating in the state. She expressed her displeasure at the continued influence of some powerful criminal gangs in parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
“Effective action needs to be taken against all mafia gangs, including land mafia, irrespective of their political affiliations and other powerful connections,” she said.
“We inherited ‘jungle raj’, but now is the time to put the state’s law and order back on rails at all costs,” she said.