MUMBAI, November 6: The Modus Operandi Bureau (MOB) of the Crime Branch does not have records of crimes committed by the Fasse Pardhi tribe. Senior police Inspector of the MOB, P R Rane told Express Newsline he would compile the tribe's MO after obtaining more information.

However, Mumbai police had no trouble in identifying members of the tribe as the perpetrators of Tuesday's ghastly slaying of the two constables and a watchman. ``We knew within a few hours that only this tribe could be involved in such a ghastly murder,'' said P S Pasricha, Joint police commissioner (Law and order), adding that the MO of crimes committed by the tribals was similar in all cases. ``Every year the Mumbai police receive at least two to three cases of crime committed by the Pardhi tribe and in most cases bodies of victims have been left unrecognisable,'' said Arvind Mahadik, senior inspector at the Santacruz police station.

Classified as criminal tribes by the British over a century ago, the tribals were nomadic hunters who used ropes to trap animals (Fasse-noose, Pardhihunter). In course of time, some of them moved to the city seeking an alternative source of livelihood after being shunned by villagers.

Members of the tribe who specialise in house breaking usually enter the city during the winter returning to their native villages in Beed, Jalna, Nashik, Pune (Bhore) and Osmanabad after committing crimes. Police officials recounted how Pardhi tribals from Aurangabad hired a van in the city last year and went on a house breaking spree in Pant Nagar, Vikhroli and Chembur, before returning with the booty to their villages.

Earlier in 1983, Pardhis waylaid two-wheeler riders on the Eastern Express Highway, throwing sticks to knock riders off their vehicles before closing in for the kill. Thirteen such cases were recorded by the police.

Last month, members of the tribe brutally killed a father and son in the course of a robbery in Nashik. ``They are such hard core criminals that they reveal little even after third degree treatment,'' said an exasperated police official. The Pardhis have made only rudimentary changes in their arsenal. ``Formerly they carried only heavy stones as weapons, but now wield choppers and heavy iron rods. They never use fire arms,'' said Inspector Mahadik.

However, members of the tribe still carry heavy stones when they break into houses, ``to bludgeon occupants in case of any resistance,'' said a police official. The attack in the Malad robbery was so savage that the two constables didn't have time to get down from their motorcycle, he added.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.