Bike gang waving swords vandalizes 70 cars

BHOPAL: The 'in-between-governments' time turned into a nightmare for residents along 8km of some of the most posh areas of the state capital on Thursday night, when a gang of masked bikers went on a vandalism spree, smashing windscreens of at least 70 cars and abusing and threatening people.
Armed with swords, rods and sticks, the gang of six on three bikes wrecked every car they came across in Kamla Nagar, TT Nagar and Shyamla Hills.Their hooliganism - that went unchecked across three police station areas - was caught on CCTV cameras but till late Friday night, not a single arrest had been made.
Angry residents contacted their local corporators Santosh Kasana and Pradeep Saxena and a group of people led by newly elected MLA P C Sharma filed a complaint at Kamla Nagar police station.
Usually, this is one of the best guarded areas, with the CM's residence less than 1.5km from one of the locations the gang hit, Civil Lines in Shyamla Hills. But police were clueless about the vandalism - most of the force in the area was deployed at the Congress office on Link Road No. 1 where the name of the next CM was to be announced. On Friday, Congress and BJP members staged separate protests outside Kamla Nagar police station against police inaction. Harjeet Singh, a businessman, told TOI that the hoodlums struck soon after he returned to his home in Kotra Sultanabad of Kamla Nagar around 1am on Friday.
Late night raid: Bikers hammered shutters of shops with iron rods
He parked his brand new i20 on the street, as usual, and went inside. Around 1.50am, he heard the noise of glass shattering and ran out to check. “I saw six men on three bikes speeding away. The rear windscreen of my car was shattered. I ran after them but they escaped, hurling abuses at me,” he said, adding that the goons wore masks and seemed drunk. “Later, I learnt that cars in Kotra Market, Nehru Nagar and Gitanjali Complex had also been wrecked the same way.”
Smashed rear windshields of cars parked at various locations
Another victim, Shivnarayan Yadav, told TOI that this is not the first such incident in the area. He suspects residents of some nearby slums are behind this. The gang smashed cars in Ambedkar Nagar and then fled towards Jawahar Chowk, where they did some more damage, he said. Kotra resident Vikas Sharma was among the victims bewildered by why someone who randomly wreck parked cars.
CCTV clips show that the gang started their vandalism from near Kopal School in Nehru Nagar and moved on to Kotra Market-Ambedkar Nagar, P&T Square, Jawahar Chowk and Saraswati Nagar, swinging swords and rods at cars all along the way. Ten cars were damaged in Saraswati Nagar, where the gang was seen creating a ruckus around 2am. Some of these were cars owned by relatives of policemen posted in TT Nagar and Aishbagh police stations, say sources.
SHO Kamla Nagar Madan Mohan Malviya said the gang damaged around 30 cars in his territory alone. Alok Shrivastava, SHO of TT Nagar, said they got information of the vandalism but since no incident was reported, an FIR wasn’t filed. Anand Tiwari, SHO of Shyamla Hills, said the same bike-borne gang vandalized the car of Ubez Khan, a resident of Civil Lines near Khushbu Park around 2.30am. This time, the goons hammered the shutters of closed shops with iron rods.
SP (South) Rahul Kumar Lodha said police are investigating the case as a top priority. “We have some vital clues and the accused will be nabbed soon,” he said. Two FIRs have been filed at Kamla Nagar and Shyamla Hills police stations.