Bengaluru: Over the past two years, the Bengaluru police have traced 770 out of the 800 history-sheeters who had gone off the radar, mainly due to the police’s negligence, in the last decade.
Bengaluru has around 6,000 active rowdies. Of these, 800 were in the Out of View (OV) list, which is strictly meant to maintain data on missing or absconding suspects in criminal cases such as thefts and burglaries.
The files of these 800 had been gathering dust in police stations for years as officials made no serious attempts to locate them.
The situation changed only when the police launched a special drive to trace the missing rowdies.
The drive revealed shocking details – some OV history-sheeters had as many as 245 Non-Bailable Warrants (NBWs) and court proclamations issued against them.
According to Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda, the primary purpose of opening a history sheet is to monitor rowdies and track their activities to prevent them from indulging in anti-social activities.
Technically, no history-sheeter could be added to the OV list.
A police inspector said that history sheets are an integral part of policing in any city: they are like a trump card for maintaining law and order.
“When a serious crime occurs and there are no clear suspects, we go back to history sheets to find connections or leads. They help us understand both the modus operandi and existing criminal rivalries,” the officer said, speaking anonymously.
Constant monitoring, he added, also prevents rowdies from operating remotely through accomplices and eliminates their “area dominance” – a term referring to a rowdy’s control over specific localities through extortion, real estate dealings and intimidation.
Despite this critical role of history sheets, most police stations in Bengaluru had neglected them. The issue came to light in 2023 when the police commissioner visited the RR Nagar police station and found that four rowdies were listed as OVs there.
“We began checking other police stations and found a similar situation,” Dayananda told DH. “That’s when we launched a special drive to trace all OV rowdies.”
Subsequently, dedicated teams were set up in each police station. These teams checked the original address of the OV rowdies and enquired around. If any leads were found, police would follow the leads and trace the rowdies.
Police also checked their Aadhaar numbers, phone numbers, bank transactions, close relatives, etc.
Around 20 rowdies had moved out of Karnataka. Inactive rowdies – those who had given up the world of crime – were removed from history-sheets.
Surprisingly, many OV rowdies were still active and operating remotely through accomplices, brokering real estate deals and intimidating people.