|
LUCKNOW (India) - INDIAN police are betting there is no honour among thieves.
Police said on Tuesday they are co-opting former criminals to give up trade secrets to help stem a massive crime wave that has hit the city of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, a notoriously lawless state in northern India.
'Who knows the mind-set of criminals better than the one who, himself, had ruled the dark alleys of crime?' Kanpur police chief Anand Swaroop said.
Mr Swaroop said the plan entailed identifying once habitual criminals who are no longer active and asking them for their insights into today's delinquents.
Twelve convicts have so far agreed to take part, and they will initially receive a monthly retainer of 1,000 rupees (S$36) that could increase depending on how useful they are, he said.
At least 32 murders and thefts worth 250 million rupees or more have taken place in the last three months in Kanpur, an industrial city some 80 km south-east of the state capital, Lucknow, according to police statistics.
State police chief Shiv Narain Singh praised the initiative, saying if it went well it could help former criminals reintegrate into society.
'This perhaps is the best way for them to repent for the crimes they have committed in their youth,' he said. -- AP
| 
