Graffiti gangs on the prowl for cars

On Friday night, Juhu police held 4 teenagers from the J-Boys gang; they had painted their gang’s signature on a minister’s official car

Sagnik Chowdhury

Mumbai, March 11: They become active well past midnight, zipping around at high speed, guzzling beer, spraying paint from aerosol cans on expensive cars parked outside buildings and leaving behind their trade mark signature on vehicles and walls before moving on.

Most of them are still in their teens and go by names like the A-1 gang, RB (Rule Breakers) gang, Y gang, J-Boys gang and the YWA gang (Youth Warriors Association). On Friday night, they chose a state minister’s official vehicle as their target.



That night, the Juhu police caught four members of the J-Boys gang red-handed. Next day, they arrested two more. They have been charged with causing damage to property. On February 24, the Juhu police had arrested 38 other boys from various graffiti gangs. They were released after they paid fines.

“For the past two months, we have been receiving complaints from local residents about graffiti being painted on the walls of their buildings and on their cars. Sometimes the windows of the cars are also smashed. The culprits sign off as A-1, J-Boys, RB and so on, which are the names of their gangs. Most of them are still in school or college, and are from well-to-do families,” says Senior Police Inspector Pradeep Shinde of the Juhu Police station.

“These boys leave home around 2:30 am, and drive around in their cars. They get high on beer and start damaging property. When we question them, they say they did it just for the craze and thrill of the act. Even after rounding up 38 boys earlier, when complaints didn’t reduce, we beefed up night patrol. I had put four teams of 3 constables each on the job, which led to Friday night’s arrests,” said Shinde.

“The boys arrested were active in Oshiwara, Lokhandwala and even Bandra. On Friday night, one of the cars they painted their sign ‘J-Boys’ on was the official Ambasador used by minister Baba Siddiqui. A complaint had been filed at Bandra police station in this regard, and now further enquiries are on,” said Shinde.

Kavi Trivedi, a producer whose son was one of those arrested, told Newsline: “Although my son had himself not painted graffiti on cars, he had been misled into being a part of the group. They are just little boys, and are not hardened criminals. We realise that they have made a big mistake, and we apologise for it. We have promised the police, that if such a thing happens again, they can take sterner action against our boys.”

Says Muhit Khan, an actor living on 13th Road, Juhu and whose Hyundai Accent was vandalised by the group on Friday night: “These boys are a serious menace. They seem to be influenced by such scenes in some Bollywood and Hollywood movies. These movies should be banned, and the parents of these teenagers should be held responsible. How can they allow their sons to leave home so late, and give them their cars?”