Few takers for CBI’s Rs 2.5 cr

WILL the announcement of cash awards help CBI nab killers of Satyendra Dubey or thieves of Tagore’s Nobel medal? The answer is a no, if...

WILL the announcement of cash awards help CBI nab killers of Satyendra Dubey or thieves of Tagore’s Nobel medal? The answer is a no, if big criminals are involved and a yes if they are petty criminals.

The agency has announced nearly Rs 3 crore of awards on fugitives in the past. ‘‘No names, no faces, no hassles,’’ CBI officers promised those who give tips, yet there were a handful of bounty hunters.

Informers have claimed only Rs 50 lakh so far. That means a bounty of Rs 2.5 crore on the most wanted is still up for grabs. Dawood Ibrahim, accused of planning and financing 13 explosions in Mumbai in 1993, tops the list of fugitives, as the CBI has put Rs 15 lakh on his head. The award is lying unclaimed for 11 years now.

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The CBI had announced huge rewards — totalling Rs 1.4 crore —for fugitives in the 1993 blast cases. Not a paisa has been claimed so far. ‘‘Most of the accused in Bombay blast have run away to different countries. Award system might not have worked there, but the awards had a tremendous impact on the local cases,’’ former CBI director P.C. Sharma said.

In the IA hijacking case, all the main accused — Sunny Ahmed Kazi, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Ibrahim Akhtar, Mistri Zahur Ibrahim and Shakir (Rs 10 lakh each on their head) — are still at large.

In another high profile case of murder of prominent businessman Nand Kishore Rungta, Shahabuddin (Rs 2 lakh) has not been trapped so far. Admitting that awards have not worked in cases where terrorists or major criminals are involved, CBI spokesperson said: ‘‘We have a high success rate in small criminal cases. We had advertised an award of Rs 50,000 on Gobind Singh, a cheat, a week ago. We caught him within five days.’’