Extortion Gangs Raise Their Head Again in Bhubaneswar: What Went Missing After Sarangi, Priyadarshi, Sanjeeb Panda's Crackdown Era?| Special Report

Bhubaneswar: A sword-wielding gang chasing a young entrepreneur through the streets of Odisha's capital is more than another crime report. For Bhubaneswar – a Smart City, an emerging investment destination and a city seeking to project itself as the new face of Odisha's economic rise – the visuals are deeply unsettling.

The latest Bharatpur incident, in which a group allegedly chased and attacked a young self-drive car entrepreneur after an alleged extortion demand, has revived an uncomfortable question: Is the dreaded “dada bati” culture, once aggressively crushed by the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police, raising its head again?

The answer matters beyond law and order.

Big-ticket investors do not merely study land prices, tax incentives and infrastructure before investing. They also assess the security environment. A city where local entrepreneurs can be chased with swords in public over alleged extortion demands sends the wrong signal to investors.

For Bhubaneswar, which is positioning itself for IT, electronics, manufacturing, services and real-estate investment, the fear is not just of one gang. It is the possibility of a perception that criminal groups can again dictate terms on the street.

The Bharatpur attack therefore brings back memories of a time when extortion gangs, particularly during the city's real-estate expansion, were a persistent menace.

But it also raises another question: What changed between the crackdown era and the present resurgence of small, violent gangs?

The Extortion Graph: How Bhubaneswar's Dada Bati Cases Moved Over the Years

The broad crime trend from 2016 onwards shows a cyclical pattern –rising extortion during periods of rapid commercial expansion, a sharp fall during sustained police crackdowns, followed by the re-emergence of decentralised gangs.

Year	Reported/Estimated Trend

Key Development

2016–18

110–140 annually

Extortion expanded alongside the real-estate boom in Patia, Khandagiri, Tamando and other growth corridors

2019

158 cases

Extortion reportedly expanded from builders to markets, parking areas, commercial establishments and small businesses

2020

64 cases

The major anti-extortion crackdown and the launch of the “Dada Bati Ku Naa” campaign

2021

78 cases

Post-crackdown suppression continued, though smaller local networks remained active

2022

114 cases

Post-Covid commercial revival coincided with a resurgence in property and business-related extortion

2023

132 cases

Emergence of hybrid extortion methods, including digital payment demands

2024

95 cases

Tougher legal provisions under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita became available

2025–26

110+ trend/YTD projection

Decentralised sub-gangs and violent neighbourhood-level extortion bids resurfaced

The trend is significant.

Extortion in Bhubaneswar appears to have changed its structure. The large, recognisable syndicate may be less visible today, but the vacuum is increasingly being occupied by smaller and more unpredictable groups. These gangs may not have the organisational depth of the older criminal networks, but their fragmented nature can make them equally dangerous – and sometimes more brazen.

The Bharatpur incident appears to fit that emerging pattern. Instead of a sophisticated syndicate operating quietly, a handful of alleged miscreants reportedly resorted to open violence and swords after an extortion demand was resisted.

That is the danger for the police.

A fragmented gang does not need a large network to create a large fear factor.

Police Tenure-Wise: Why Did the Numbers Dip?

The sharpest decline in extortion activity came when the Commissionerate Police adopted a visible, aggressive and sustained anti-gang strategy.

The Sudhanshu Sarangi Phase: The Psychological War Against Extortion

The turning point came in 2020 when Dr. Sudhanshu Sarangi, as Police Commissioner, launched the highly visible “Dada Bati Ku Naa” campaign.

The campaign was significant because it did not treat extortion merely as another FIR category.

It was treated as a citywide criminal ecosystem that had to be dismantled.

The strategy had several elements: identifying active extortionists, publicly signalling zero tolerance, encouraging victims to report cases, launching a dedicated communication channel for complaints and conducting combing operations against known anti-socials.

The October 2020 crackdown was particularly significant. Gangsters and suspected extortionists were picked up in large numbers, while high-profile arrests sent a message through the criminal network.

The psychological impact was perhaps as important as the arrests.

For an extortionist, fear of the police is often the first deterrent. The Sarangi-era strategy attempted to reverse the traditional equation: instead of traders and businessmen fearing gangsters, the gangsters were made to fear being identified, tracked and picked up.

The reported fall to around 64 cases in 2020 reflected that disruption.

The Soumendra Priyadarshi Phase: Maintaining Street-Level Pressure

The anti-extortion environment did not disappear immediately after the initial campaign. Under Soumendra Priyadarshi, the Commissionerate Police continued with a strong street-level and technology-backed policing approach.

Known criminals remained under watch, anti-social activities were targeted through preventive action and the police maintained a visible presence in crime-prone areas.

The crucial factor was continuity.

A crackdown is often easy to launch but difficult to sustain. The challenge is ensuring that criminals do not interpret the end of a special campaign as the end of police pressure.

The post-2020 period showed that sustained surveillance mattered. Even as the city emerged from pandemic restrictions, the criminal ecosystem did not immediately return to its pre-crackdown scale.

But the seeds of a comeback were already visible.

Smaller networks began emerging in expanding peripheral areas, particularly where rapid urbanisation created new commercial activity faster than the policing ecosystem could fully adapt.

The Sanjeeb Panda Phase: Intelligence-Led Policing, Fear of Swift Action

During Sanjeeb Panda's tenure, the Commissionerate Police continued to rely heavily on intelligence gathering, preventive action and quick intervention against criminal groups.

The broader philosophy remained clear: identify the gang before the gang becomes powerful.

The approach was particularly important in Bhubaneswar because the city's criminal geography was changing.

The old model of a well-known local strongman controlling a territory was increasingly giving way to fluid groups, youth-based gangs and temporary criminal alliances. The same individuals could be involved in extortion, assault, land disputes, drugs or other local criminal activities.

This required policing that was not confined to responding after a crime was reported.

It required advance intelligence.

It required mapping who was associating with whom.

It required tracking newly emerging groups.

And, crucially, it required the certainty that a violent public act would trigger an immediate and visible police response.

What Went Missing?

The biggest question today is not whether the police have enough laws.

After the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita came into force, law enforcement has stronger provisions to deal with organised criminal activity. Section 111 of the BNS, dealing with organised crime, provides a potentially powerful legal framework against criminal syndicates.

The problem, therefore, is unlikely to be the absence of law.

The larger question is whether the certainty of enforcement and the fear of immediate police action have weakened.

Extortion gangs do not necessarily calculate the number of years of punishment under a law before picking up a weapon.

They calculate something more immediate:

Will the police reach me before I can do it again?

The Sudhanshu Sarangi model created that fear through a high-visibility campaign.

Soumendra Priyadarshi's policing sustained pressure through street-level surveillance and preventive action.

Sanjeeb Panda's tenure emphasised intelligence and the identification of emerging criminal networks.

The common thread was proactivity.

That may be what Bhubaneswar now needs to revisit.

The police cannot wait for a trader to file a complaint after receiving an extortion call. In the extortion economy, under-reporting itself is a major weapon of criminals. Victims often remain silent because they fear retaliation or believe a complaint will expose them to further targeting.

A renewed anti-extortion strategy would therefore require the Commissionerate Police to once again move from complaint-based policing to intelligence-based disruption.

That could mean:

• Mapping emerging gangs locality by locality;

• Tracking repeat offenders and their associates;

• Intensifying surveillance around commercial and high-cash-flow zones;

• Creating confidential reporting channels for traders and entrepreneurs;

• Conducting periodic combing operations before the festive season;

• Monitoring social media and digital payment trails linked to extortion;

• Ensuring visible, quick action in cases involving weapons and public intimidation.

The message has to be clear and immediate.

A sword attack in a commercial neighbourhood cannot be treated as an isolated assault if it is linked to an extortion demand. It has to be investigated as a potential warning signal from a wider criminal ecosystem.

The Sarangi-Priyadarshi-Panda Lesson

The lesson from the last decade is straightforward.

Extortion falls sharply when policing is proactive, visible, intelligence-led and sustained. It returns when the pressure on emerging gangs weakens or becomes reactive.

The “Dada Bati Ku Naa” campaign succeeded not simply because it produced arrests. It changed the psychological balance on the street.

The challenge for the present Commissionerate Police is to create that balance again.

Can Bhubaneswar prevent the return of the extortion ecosystem before the small “vasooli” gangs grow into the next generation of organised syndicates?

The history of the city's anti-extortion battle suggests the answer lies not in waiting for more FIRs.

It lies in making the gangs fear the police again – before Bhubaneswar's businesses start fearing the gangs. 
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