Guwahati on way to earn crime city tag!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 12: Beware of cheats in city streets! You may fall prey to a section of women, including young and smart-looking ones, who are out to play their gender cards as alluring tactics.

Take the incident that took place on the GS Road on June 11 in the city. A woman with an infant in her hands was going towards Ganeshguri from Christianbasti side on foot. When a passer-by, an army man from UP, was about to cross her, she pretended to have fainted and requested to man to help her by holding her infant for a while. As soon as the man took the child from the woman, she raised a hue and cry saying that the man was kidpping her baby. Surprisingly, availing that chance another woman accompanying her stched the mobile handset of the army man and decamped.

Soon there was a crowd and the woman was accusing the man to have made an attempt to kidp her baby. The man was successful to an extent to make the crowd belief that he was in fact trapped by the woman. Some electronic media jourlists also came to the scene.

In the meantime, the police arrived in the spot and made an attempt to pull the man by holding him in his waist belt. However, the jourlists and the crowd made the police know as to how the man had been trapped by the woman. On suspicion, the police had to take both to Bhangagarh police station for grilling. The police unearthed the truth that the man was innocent. The police also came to know that the woman is a member of a racket of organized crime in the city.

One often sees in the city gaggles of girls in modern outfits travelling by bus during the rash hours. They often board buses at Ganeshguri only to alight at Jata Bhawan. They also board buses again at Jata Bhawan and get down at Downtown and Six Mile bus stops. They are pickpockets. They do have understanding with city bus drivers and handymen who allegedly get commissions from them.

Manoj Barman, a handyman of a city bus plying on route No. 1 from Bashishta to Adabari, said: “This practice has been in the city from long back. Pickpockets do pay at the rates of Rs 200 to Rs 300 per trip to city bus crews. They board buses in gaggles.”

There is yet another design in places like markets, mostly at Bashistha Chariali. A couple with an infant and the mother begging some bucks from pedestrians by telling them the problems they are in is a common scene. They concoct stories like leaving their wallet somewhere and not being able to go home and the like.