Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently stated the need to improve the police’s image among the public on the first day of the 60th All India Director General of Police (DGP) and Director General of Police (IGP) Conference held in Raipur. This comment was intended as an important guideline for policing across the country, but the current reality in Janjgir district turns this advice into a bitter irony. The question is how and where can this image be improved when, nine months after the 78 lakh rupee robbery and shootout, the police are still empty-handed, while gambling dens worth lakhs of rupees are openly set up in the fields.
Gamblers’ activities intensify after 4 pm in the fields of Pisaud, Pithampur, Udayban, and surrounding areas of Janjgir-Champa district. Packets of cards are opened, motorcycles are lined up, and lakhs of rupees are placed at stake. Videos that have gone viral on social media show gambling gatherings where even transactions are clearly visible. While the videos may be unverified, complaints of gambling dens in villages go back years, and locals are extremely concerned. They say that despite police patrols, the gambling network is expanding as quickly as it shifts its locations.
The district police have taken action several times. In October 2025, during a raid in Raman Nagar, eight gamblers, including six Patwaris, were arrested and approximately twenty lakh rupees were recovered. Several gamblers were caught in fields and roadsides in the Pamgarh and Champa areas. Ten gamblers were arrested in Pithampur village. Gambling dens became active again in the Mulmula area after the elections. Superintendent of Police Vijay Pandey has increased patrols, but the results are superficial. As soon as the police arrive, the dens are dismantled and reopen at a new location the next day. The viral video reveals that this is not a network that can be stopped with mere daily efforts, but an organized system that requires a strong strategy to dismantle.
Concurrently, the district’s biggest crime remains unsolved to this day. Despite nine months of diligent efforts, the Janjgir police have failed to uncover a single solid clue in the ₹7.8 million robbery and shootout that occurred on the evening of January 14, 2025. The criminals attacked a collection team in front of a government liquor shop, shot the guard, took the cash bag, and fled on a blue HF Deluxe motorcycle. The then-SP Vivek Shukla arrived at the scene that night. IG Sanjeev Shukla inspected and provided guidance. Raids were conducted in several districts, CCTV footage was scanned, descriptions of suspects were released, and a reward was raised to ₹500,000. Despite this, neither the criminals’ location nor their network was established.
Vivek Shukla served as SP for four months, but with no success. Subsequently, IPS Vijay Pandey took charge of the district in May 2025. However, despite the new SP’s leadership shifting the direction of the investigation, no significant progress has been made. Nine months later, the police situation remains the same as it was on the first day. The criminals have concealed themselves so cleverly that all the police’s efforts are proving futile.
Both these scenarios raise the same question: how can the police’s image improve when major crimes remain unsolved and minor crimes remain unchecked? Prime Minister Modi had emphasized that the police must earn public trust. But trust is not earned through words or promises, but through results.
The investigation into the ₹7.8 million robbery case is stalled, and gambling involving millions of rupees in the fields remains rampant. This is the ground reality in Janjgir, which appears to be moving in the exact opposite direction of the Prime Minister’s advice. This situation demonstrates that the path to improving the police’s image lies not simply in increasing patrols or posting posters, but in breaking the network, apprehending the criminals, and delivering concrete results.
The Janjgir police must now take decisive action on both fronts. Only when the robbery cases are solved, the accused arrested, and lasting action taken against the gambling network will public trust be restored, and only then will the image, which the Prime Minister had advocated at the national level, be restored.
