Basudev Yadav, the 70-year-old who ‘pioneered’ the kidnapping industry in Bihar, surrendered to the police last week. Two weeks earlier, his disciple, crime lord Bhagar Yadav, gave in too.

The surrender of these two criminals coincided with Nitish Kumar’s two and a half years in office—on May 25, Kumar reached the half way mark. Apart from the sustained police pressure on these ganglords to give up or face the consequences, the talk is that they surrendered in the hope of furthering the political careers of their children. Both Bhagar and Basudev Yadav’s sons contested in the assembly elections and lost.

The two ganglords—who made abductions a money-spinning proposition in the state—surrendered in the backdrop of the state witnessing a marked decline in cases of kidnapping for ransom. Cases of abductions of doctors, engineers and students have come down in Nitish Kumar’s Bihar. Government figures show that between January and October 2001—when the RJD was in power—314 cases of kidnapping for ransom were recorded. It came down to 166 during the same period in 2006 and 74 in 2007 after Nitish Kumar took over.

According to the state police, kidnapping for ransom had acquired the form of an industry and fetched the criminal gangs a staggering Rs 250 crore. Investigations had revealed that it was a well-established network with the gangs enjoying political and police patronage. The industry even inspired Bollywood to come out with films like Apaharan that were based on the spate of abductions in the state.

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