Jharkhand DGP M.V. Rao has shared his personal number in the social media for people to inform him directly about organised criminal gangs, indicating the state police’s strong resolve to launch intensive operations against crime.

The 1987 batch IPS officer, who took over as the DGP earlier this year, has in a tweet posted separately in Hindi and English on Wednesday morning, said, “Intensive and targeted operations against the organised criminal gangs are yielding desired results. I seek the public participation in Jharkhand police endeavours in creating a safer environment. Please share information on criminals. My contact number 09431106363.”

Sources in the state CID revealed that the top brass of the police department had discussed a multi-pronged intensive operation against the 40-odd criminal gangs, some of whose leaders operate from behind the bars, in different districts of the state.

“We have 100 emergency dial numbers and also contact numbers of SPs and senior police officials in which people can share inputs about criminal gangs without disclosing their identity. However, this would be the first occasion in the two-decades history of Jharkhand (since it was carved out of Bihar in 2000) that a DGP has shared his personal number in the social media for sharing information against organised criminal gangs. It is aimed at sending a strong message to the criminal gangs and also to the masses that they can now directly get in touch with the senior-most police official to share information about gangsters,” a senior CID official in Ranchi said on the condition of anonymity.

He is currently in Dumka central jail Bhola Prasad

The development follows recent incidents of carnage at Latehar by jailed gangster Sujit Sinha’s men and Maoist splinter outfit Peoples’ Liberation Front of India (PLFI).

“With rebels joining hands with criminals we wanted to redo our strategy to put an end to criminal gangs. Primarily, the criminal gangs in Jharkhand are involved in extorting money from contractors and fixing tenders. Once we have culled out information about criminal gangs, we will have a multi-pronged strategy against them,” the senior CID official added.

There are 40 criminal gangs, which are active in the 24 districts of the state. Out of them, most of the groups are in the industrial hub of Jamshedpur (eight) and capital Ranchi (eight).

While some of the gangsters are behind the bars, including Akhilesh Singh of Jamshedpur and Sujit Sinha, Anil Sharma and Fahim Khan of Ranchi there are several gangsters who are out of police reach.

The CID has sought details of income sources of gangsters from the respective districts as part of a strategy to block their income-generating avenues.