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Palika Raid Report: Rakesh Kumar Singh
In one of his visits to the market, Rakesh had the opportunity to witness a raid. It was unplanned. The drama however, was intense and exciting. The raid was conducted by the police on the people who were selling pirated Cd's and VCD's in the market.
It was around 11.20, suddendly there was hue and cry all around the mezzanine floor. A lot of shops were pulling down their shutters. The plain chothed men with Dandas (crime branch personals) had already seized some shops and some Dandadharis were chasing the shopkeepers and sales boys who were trying to run away. Meanwhile a scared salesboy (most probably his name is Vinod) also jumped from upstairs. Many of them who managed to come out of the clutches of dandadharis had gathered in the central hall. Now it completely became the affair of shop no. M-9 M-12 and M-13 and the raiding party. Within few minutes the central hall was completely housefull. Barring a few like me the rest were all shopkeeprs and their respective staff. Suddenly some one from the hall whistled, which was followed by voices like "maro sale ko, iski bahan ..... And with this people started moving towards the stairs which was otherwise seized by the dandadharis. They started pushing the police personnel which resulted into a little lathicharge. Since the policemen had already cornered the crowd in both the entry points, it was difficult for them to reach at the point of action.
Now it was the time of moving out of the raiding party with the seized materials (pirated cds and cds of c circuit movies). Here again the crowd started shouting against the raiding party. It became difficult for them to move away from the crowd (around 300 people). So finally they took out their revolvers. Initially the crowd seemed to be dispersing, but within a few seconds they got back and started abusing the raiding party and pelting glasses and bottles on them.
The raiding party, however,managed to move out from the bazar with four five bags (big jute bags) of siezed materials. And of course they took away 2-3 guys with them.
12 o'clock, Central hall
I just returned here after watching the entire episode and was looking for some one with whom I could share my observations. I chanced upon Rakesh (name changed, sells cheap men's wear) I asked him about the incident. He said, "bhai sahab dekh liya apne kaise raid padta hai yahan. Are aaj to police wale bach ke nikal gaye yahan se warna to yahan par hamesha raid karne wale pit kar jate hain. Pichli bar to teen police wale ghayal kar diye the market walon ne aur ek ko adhmara kar diya tha.Yeh to koi badi taiyari hogi nahin to yahan pahle hi pata chal jata hai ki aaj raid padne wali hai. Aapko pata hai shop no______ se local beet wale ko do lakh raupye monthly diya jata hai, bahan......... dhokha de gaya." (SO did you see how raid is conducted? This time the police could go away easily, on other such days, they are badly beaten up by the shop keepers. This must have been a well planned raid, because otherwise we all get to know when a raid is conducted. The owner of shop no_____, gives a total of 2 lakh rupees to the local police beat. Mother F...this time he has cheated on us)
After listening to him I went towards a group of 4-5 men. Sanjay ( owner of M-1) was talking to his salesboys. He was giving them ideas on how to close shop during raids. "Sanu pahle counter ander karan di koshish karni chahidi ae fir shutter girana chahida ae. Hunn main agge to ik danda lyawanga ode nal tussi counter ander kar dena ( first of all we should try to push the counter inside and after that think for shuting down the shutter. Now I will bring a long stick to push the counter inside)". After that I again came down to the central hall and started watching the surroundings. The Mezzanine floor was completely deserted. Sales boys were sitting in 4-5 groups. The counters on the shops are quite popular at Palika. Almost every shop has 3-4 counters. After today's raid, its these small shopkeepers who'll be most affected.
I took a complete round of Palika. Except a few shops namely Eagles and T-series all the other (around 100) cd, vcd shops were closed. It actually seemed that these shops were closed for few weeks now.
12.30 pm, Palika Parking in front of gate no. 1
A group of more than 50 people are standing on the road and discusiing the matter. Besides abusing the raiding party unitedly they all have different opinion on today's raid. Some of them think that this is a result of internal politics while some sees the hands of some mini market walah behind the raid, but they all are searching ways to come out of this trauma and to become normal. One person was suggesting that they should lodge a complaint of dacoity, and for that one boy from each shop should tear their cloths and cut their bodies through blades. While some one suggested that they should jam the road of connaught place only then they will be able to free their boys. Although finally unable to reach any consensus, some of them moved towards the Delhi Police Crime Branch Head Quarter, R K Puram. I realised later that they were the ones who's shops were raided and who's relatives were taken away by the raiding party.
It was around 11.20, suddendly there was hue and cry all around the mezzanine floor. A lot of shops were pulling down their shutters. The plain chothed men with Dandas (crime branch personals) had already seized some shops and some Dandadharis were chasing the shopkeepers and sales boys who were trying to run away. Meanwhile a scared salesboy (most probably his name is Vinod) also jumped from upstairs. Many of them who managed to come out of the clutches of dandadharis had gathered in the central hall. Now it completely became the affair of shop no. M-9 M-12 and M-13 and the raiding party. Within few minutes the central hall was completely housefull. Barring a few like me the rest were all shopkeeprs and their respective staff. Suddenly some one from the hall whistled, which was followed by voices like "maro sale ko, iski bahan ..... And with this people started moving towards the stairs which was otherwise seized by the dandadharis. They started pushing the police personnel which resulted into a little lathicharge. Since the policemen had already cornered the crowd in both the entry points, it was difficult for them to reach at the point of action.
Now it was the time of moving out of the raiding party with the seized materials (pirated cds and cds of c circuit movies). Here again the crowd started shouting against the raiding party. It became difficult for them to move away from the crowd (around 300 people). So finally they took out their revolvers. Initially the crowd seemed to be dispersing, but within a few seconds they got back and started abusing the raiding party and pelting glasses and bottles on them.
The raiding party, however,managed to move out from the bazar with four five bags (big jute bags) of siezed materials. And of course they took away 2-3 guys with them.
12 o'clock, Central hall
I just returned here after watching the entire episode and was looking for some one with whom I could share my observations. I chanced upon Rakesh (name changed, sells cheap men's wear) I asked him about the incident. He said, "bhai sahab dekh liya apne kaise raid padta hai yahan. Are aaj to police wale bach ke nikal gaye yahan se warna to yahan par hamesha raid karne wale pit kar jate hain. Pichli bar to teen police wale ghayal kar diye the market walon ne aur ek ko adhmara kar diya tha.Yeh to koi badi taiyari hogi nahin to yahan pahle hi pata chal jata hai ki aaj raid padne wali hai. Aapko pata hai shop no______ se local beet wale ko do lakh raupye monthly diya jata hai, bahan......... dhokha de gaya." (SO did you see how raid is conducted? This time the police could go away easily, on other such days, they are badly beaten up by the shop keepers. This must have been a well planned raid, because otherwise we all get to know when a raid is conducted. The owner of shop no_____, gives a total of 2 lakh rupees to the local police beat. Mother F...this time he has cheated on us)
After listening to him I went towards a group of 4-5 men. Sanjay ( owner of M-1) was talking to his salesboys. He was giving them ideas on how to close shop during raids. "Sanu pahle counter ander karan di koshish karni chahidi ae fir shutter girana chahida ae. Hunn main agge to ik danda lyawanga ode nal tussi counter ander kar dena ( first of all we should try to push the counter inside and after that think for shuting down the shutter. Now I will bring a long stick to push the counter inside)". After that I again came down to the central hall and started watching the surroundings. The Mezzanine floor was completely deserted. Sales boys were sitting in 4-5 groups. The counters on the shops are quite popular at Palika. Almost every shop has 3-4 counters. After today's raid, its these small shopkeepers who'll be most affected.
I took a complete round of Palika. Except a few shops namely Eagles and T-series all the other (around 100) cd, vcd shops were closed. It actually seemed that these shops were closed for few weeks now.
12.30 pm, Palika Parking in front of gate no. 1
A group of more than 50 people are standing on the road and discusiing the matter. Besides abusing the raiding party unitedly they all have different opinion on today's raid. Some of them think that this is a result of internal politics while some sees the hands of some mini market walah behind the raid, but they all are searching ways to come out of this trauma and to become normal. One person was suggesting that they should lodge a complaint of dacoity, and for that one boy from each shop should tear their cloths and cut their bodies through blades. While some one suggested that they should jam the road of connaught place only then they will be able to free their boys. Although finally unable to reach any consensus, some of them moved towards the Delhi Police Crime Branch Head Quarter, R K Puram. I realised later that they were the ones who's shops were raided and who's relatives were taken away by the raiding party.