Although law and order is a subject controlled by the Vajpayee government in the State of Delhi, 649 murders were committed in the capital last yea. During the same period Mumbai recorded 351 murders against 80 in Calcutta and 35 in Chennai.

In the year under consideration 438 women were molested in Delhi compared o 115 in Mumbai. Molestation figurer in Calcutta in 1998 was 25 as against 5 in Chennai. In the case of abduction and thefts too, Delhi tops the graph with 1,333 abductions and 26,911 thefts in 1998. During the same period 179 persons were abducted in Mumbai, 117 in Calcutta and 15 in Chennai. The figures of heft were as follows, 12,400 in Mumbai, 4,001 in Calcutta and 1196 in Chennai. Mr. Advani did not put out crime figures of Uttar Pradesh - another BJP ruled State. From reports called from Lucknow over a period, say 12 months, Mr. Advani will have little to rejoice about. The performance of the Kalyan Singh Government where 23 of the 90 - odd ministers are accused in criminal cases has been a subject of severe criticism.

Unlike in Mumbai, in Delhi the mafia dons are however not as organised. They lack the finesse of their counterparts in Mumbai. The emphasis in Delhi is more on street a house robberies, murders and docities carried out in homes by domestic helpers and others. The arrest of Daood Ibrahim's aide.

Ramesh Sharma nothwithstanding, other mafia dons have from time to time been migrating to Delhi. The pattern of operations of these dons has been identical in some cases too. They rent a flat in posh areas of the capital giving the impressions that they are useful citizens. MP's flats too provide a hideout for some of theme. Sometimes women join the gangsters too. The arrest of Romesh Sharma, of course has not helped matters much.

The crime is scene is more organised in Mumbai where the gangs and their dons are more after extortion and killing. If the demand is not met they target them for killing. Intra-gang rivalry is nowhere as acute as in Mumbai. Even Shiv Sena activists continue o maintain a close link with the Mumbai's underworld. A few words about the crime scene in Uttar Padesh may not be irrelevant here. The underworld of Uttar Pradesh used to be controlled by mafia dons such as Hari Shankar Tiwari in the eighties but with the advent of Babloo Srivastava later, the scene changed. Starting as a student-worker of the Congress Babloo Srivastava switched to crimes. Although he is behind the bars now, he still controls his gangs with the help of his cell-phones. From extortion of Lucknow traders, he switched to kidnapping of industrialists. He became the kingpin in howala transactions later. He was alleged to have a good relation with the Godma Chandraswami. His gang operate in Nepal, New Delhi, Karachi and the middle east. The arrest of Babloo Srivastava has not improved matters much as Ajit Singh is ruling the roost. Moreover Ajit is close to BJP President of Uttar Pradesh, Raj Nath Singh who helped him in getting a ticket for contesting Bidhan Parishad seat (MLC). Ajit has virtually cornered all railway contracts in U.P. Whenever needed he has bumped off his rivals in the contractor's job. Another underworld don in Lucknow is Abhay Singh. His initial source of income was extortion from traders. Thereafter he also joined the contractor's business. Killing of engineers, senior officers in broad daylight is no problem for Abhay Sing, is close to the Thakur lobby of the BJP. After elimination of his rivals, in the underworld Abhoy is considered the number one mafia leader in Uttar Pradesh. His turnover annually comes close to Rs. 10 crores annually, according to one estimate.