When crime had a blast

2003 - A RETROSPECTIVE

Crime scenario in Maharashtra was never as turbulent as in 2003. The developments that unfolded during the year left everybody badly shaken "" be it criminals, police or the common man.

The five blasts that claimed over 60 lives and rekindled memories of the 1993 serial blasts and the exposure of the nation's perhaps murkiest financial scam involving crime-police-politics nexus - the multi-crore Telgi fake stamps and stamp paper scam, undoubtedly, dominated the year.

While the blasts exposed how vulnerable the nation's financial capital was to the anti-national elements, the fake stamps scam bared how several top-ranking police officials could allegedly fall prey to greed, overlooking their duty as a policeman.

This apart, this was also a bad year for Mumbai police, who found many of their brethren getting caught for allegedly accepting bribes.

In fact, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) office in Mumbai scored over its offices in rest of the state by pinning 25 Mumbai cops for corruption this year.

Even as a major portion of the year witnessed unfolding of the two big events namely the blasts and the fake stamps probe, and made the cops hang their heads in shame, there was also silver lining in the form of deportation of seven wanted gangsters who were deported from Dubai. One of them is youngest brother of fugitive, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.

It started with the blast in a best bus outside Ghatkopar railway station on December 2, 2002 which claimed the lives of two people and left 31 injured.

Although the police identified the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) as the brain behind the blast and arrested six of its activists, the real trouble was yet to come.

Then followed a minor blast at a fast food joint at Mumbai Central station on December 6, 2002 injuring 25, and two crude bomb blasts outside Vile Parle railway station that left at least 30 people injured.

However, the shock came when a powerful blast occurred inside a suburban train on the central railway station of Mulund on March 13, killing 11 persons and leaving more than 65 injured.

The blast, for the first time, revealed involvement of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in the subversive acts in Mumbai. The Mumbai police arrested 10 persons in this connection, which included an Urdu teacher at National Defence Academy, Pune, Anwar Ali, and the alleged kingpin, Saquib Nachan.

Abu Sultan, a Pakistani terrorist involved in the blast was killed in an encounter near suburban Goregaon on April 10 with two more accused.

The residents of Mumbai had barely forgotton the Mulund blast, when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded inside a best bus once again at Ghatkopar on July 28, killing two people and injuring 31.

The most shocking moment that relived memories of the 1993 serial blasts occurred when two blasts took place simultaneously at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazari on August 25 killing 53 people and injuring more than 160.