The women, armed with AK-47 and other automatic weapons, caught Jusab Allahrakha Sandh, 40, a native of Junagadh, who has been booked in separate instances for at least 23 serious offences like murder, extortion and firing on policemen.
The operation was carried out in the jungles of Devdhari near Botad in the early hours of Sunday. ATS officials said they have handed over the accused to CID crime, as the case was under their investigation.
A picture of his arrest was released by the police on Sunday, where the gangster, who had been using the forest covers of Gir-Junagadh to elude law enforcement, is seen sitting helplessly with his legs on the ground surrounded by women cops.
Of the five ATS officials involved in the operation, four are women, including Santok Odedra, Nitmika Gohil, Aruna Gameti and Simmi Mal. They were given the task of arresting the criminal on ground while PSI Jignesh Agravat was involved in locating Sandh.
In 2014, Jusab was arrested by Junagadh police in the 2014 killing of a local temple priest over a land dispute in 2012. However, he jumped parole in June 2016 and unleashed a reign of terror in Botad, Bhavnagar and Rajkot rural, said DIG, ATS (Operations), Himanshu Shukla.
“Jusab was a trigger-happy person. He shot dead a man named Musa in June 2016. In July, he shot dead another person named Jivan Sangani in Rajkot district and then opened fire on the police team which went to arrest him,” said Shukla.
Recently, he had shot a Rajkot-based land dealer in the eye. “He was so dangerous that the government had directed us to nab him at any cost, and I am proud that my women’s team did it,” he said.
M B Zala, a 2009 batch police officer now posted as senior police inspector of Satellite police station said that women can to be as effective in combat roles as their male counterparts. “I have been posted most of the time as in-charge of a police station and dealt with rape and murder cases. I was involved in the probe of a 60-year-old woman in Bhavnagar. We are no less than our male counterparts ,” she said.