Assam Police have arrested close to 380 people accused of posing as fixers, mostly outside police stations, as part of a fresh statewide operation that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma detailed at a press briefing in Guwahati on Monday. The drive is part of a wider push against people who collect money from ordinary citizens on the promise of getting official work done.
What the operation found
Sarma said the government had quietly gathered information on suspected middlemen and fraudsters over the past several months, drawing on reports that surfaced on social media and in mainstream media coverage. To keep the exercise discreet, officers-in-charge of individual police stations were deliberately left out of the information-gathering process. “After verification, we identified around 410 'dalals or middlemen'. Of them, around 380 have been arrested,” the Chief Minister said.
Those picked up in the drive are accused of a range of fraudulent activities, including impersonating police personnel and posing as fixers to exploit people who approach police stations for official help.
A second round after 2022
This is not the first time Assam has moved against such middlemen. Sarma recalled that a similar crackdown targeting fixers near police stations was carried out in 2022, resulting in about 200 arrests. He said the racket appeared to fade over the following two years, only to resurface roughly a year before the last Assembly elections, prompting the government to compile fresh intelligence and launch this second, larger sweep. The pattern, as Sarma described it, shows how such rackets can quietly regroup once public attention fades, which is part of why the government chose to gather fresh evidence discreetly rather than announce its plans in advance.
The intensified operation began early on Saturday, after Sarma, who also holds the state's home portfolio, issued specific directions during a two-day conference of senior police officers that concluded recently.
Wider net planned, public tip-offs invited
Sarma said the crackdown will not stop at police stations. Similar exercises are already underway to identify middlemen operating within other government departments, with further drives expected in the coming days as the state tries to root out people who collect money from citizens on the promise of getting official work done.
He also announced that the Special Branch of Assam Police will build a portal where members of the public can submit information and names of suspected middlemen. Any action based on such tip-offs, he clarified, will follow verification. “Of course, action will be taken only after verification,” Sarma said.
