The Mumbai police has started a special drive against beggars and roadside drug addicts with a view to reduce petty street crimes. The drive, that started around three days ago, was under the direction of Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh to the regional additional commissioners.
Police officials said that they have also targeted beggars on major roads since they believe the latter to be part of robbers and other criminal gangs. Additional commissioner of police (south region) Krishna Prakash said, “Beggars are often used in organised and unorganised crime rackets like vehicle thefts, pick-pocketing and other petty crimes. Children are also used so that there is no suspicion of their involvement. The probability of the child committing a crime is greater if he is able-bodied,” said Mr Prakash. The police will specially crack down on drug addicts who indulge in street crimes to fund their addiction. From Dece-mber 1 to December 20 in the south region, 569 cases have been registered against hawkers, 18 against drug addicts, 409 beggars rescued along with one case of child labour.
Additional commissioner of police (west region) Vishwas Nangre-Patil said that drug addicts are often a nuisance in deserted places like skywalks and subways. “They often pass lewd comments and resort to stealing and robbery to fund their addiction. We have started booking them under Section 27 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substan-ces Act,” Mr Patil said.