Varanasi: Varanasi Zone Police arrested 25 wanted criminals carrying cash rewards during a special drive conducted across the zone from July 29 to August 20, officials said.Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Varanasi Zone, Naveen Arora said there was no place for crime and criminals in the zone and added that the campaign would be intensified in the coming days.According to police, seven of the arrested criminals carried a reward of ₹50,000 each, 16 carried a reward of ₹25,000 each and two carried a reward of ₹10,000 each.Chandauli Police recorded the highest number of arrests, apprehending 11 wanted criminals. Police in Mirzapur and Bhadohi arrested three each, while Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Sonbhadra and Azamgarh police arrested two criminals each.The accused were wanted in serious cases involving robbery, dacoity, murder, kidnapping for ransom, abduction, offences under the Gangster Act, cow smuggling, liquor smuggling, drug trafficking and theft.The campaign began on July 29 with the arrest of ₹25,000 reward-carrying accused Dayashankar from Alinagar in Chandauli. Among those subsequently arrested were alleged cow smuggler Rambabu Yadav, drug trafficker Santosh Upadhyay, robbers Akash Yadav, Vijay, Sanjay Bind, Raju Musahar and Arbaz Nat, liquor smuggler Kapildev Verma, rape accused Gulab alias Sanjay Chaubey, robber Raju Patharkat, and gangsters Ujala Pandey, Vishal Nishad, Betab Alam and Dilip Kumar Kushwaha, who carried a ₹50,000 reward in a kidnapping-for-ransom case.ADG Arora congratulated Chandauli SP and his team for their performance and directed police officials to continue strict action against reward-carrying and wanted criminals.
