PRAYAGRAJ, April 1 -- Amid years of deprivation and neglect, Banskati, 18 kilometres from the Kaushambi district headquarters, looks like just any other village in Uttar Pradesh but hides a stark reality beneath the surface. A settlement of mud houses gives no inkling that a new trend has emerged in the village's Dera Paar Mohalla, which is already notorious for producing the state's highest number of male history-sheeters (28) in a single village; 23 of them are still alive. Faced with extreme poverty, domestic violence, and the absence of their criminal husbands-who are either dead, jailed, or absconding-several village women are part of 'D-39', said to be the state's first organised all-women crime syndicate. Dressed in traditional ghoonghats (veils) and often carrying infants to appear vulnerable, the sari-clad women, most of them aged between 25 and 40, target crowded fairs, weddings, and religious gatherings across multiple districts to commit robberies and chain snatchings. Armed with surgical blades, country-made pistols and intoxicants, they create fake quarrels to cause distraction in crowded places and steal chains, wallets and phones before anyone realises, says Siyakant Chaurasia, the Karari station officer under whose jurisdiction the village falls. According to locals, the gang took shape after the women, all illiterate and mostly married as child brides, stepped out to earn, when their husbands with a criminal past were no longer around in the village. Their initial attempts gave them the taste of earning a fast buck and a sense of freedom, from their pasts, which were ridden with poverty and exploitation. The gang shuns mobile phones to avoid police tracking. Local sources claim they follow strict rules-timing, backup and equal division of loot. They move in hired vehicles or trains, striking crowds at fairs, weddings, temples and busy marketplaces across Prayagraj, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Banda and Chitrakoot districts. Police have also prepared a list of 16 members in the all-women's syndicate, with cases pertaining to chain snatching, robbery, manufacturing and smuggling illicit liquor lodged from 2015 onwards till now. Three of the women - Vimla, Rajkumari and Usha - have been declared gangsters. The latter two are already in jail while Vimla, the gang leader, continues to evade arrest. "Rajkumari, alias 'Nanki', aged around 40, is one of the most notorious members of the 'D39' gang, which came into existence on March 10, 2026," says Siyakant Chaurasia, the Karari station officer. "She is accused of killing her husband Raj Kumar, a history-sheeter, during a drunken brawl several years ago. She now faces six cases registered between 2009 and 2026 under serious sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including murder, dacoity, robbery and illicit liquor smuggling. She, along with Usha Devi and Vimla, were recently booked under the Gangsters Act. Rajkumari and Usha are in jail, while their gang leader, Vimla, a mother of three minor children-the youngest barely two years old-continues to evade arrest," Chaurasia adds. Rajkumari's married daughter Saroja Devi has also joined her mother in the crime syndicate. "The all-women's gang emerged after their men had either passed away, were absconding or had been sent to jail," according to Sonu Pasi, son of the former gram pradhan Dinai Pasi (a history-sheeter in police records). "As they set out to earn, they had no skills nor had any land allotted by the government. So, all that they had as an option was crime, robbing people of their ornaments and cash. Earlier, police used to arrive in the village to arrest inhabitants with criminal records. But now they dread even passing through the village without additional paramilitary support, after a couple of attacks by criminals on police teams a few years back," Sonu Pasi says. In several of these families, both father and son are history-sheeters, says Rajesh Kumar, the Kaushambi superintendent of police. "But the pattern is now shifting, with crime spreading to mother-daughter pairs as women take over roles once dominated by men. The gang members know more about forthcoming fairs, religious get-togethers at famous shrines or public assemblies in high-profile weddings or public rallies. These places are potential targets for their strikes. Public transport and crowded market places have also witnessed a rise in crime in recent years, committed by these women," he says. Kranti Devi, wife of Lavkush Saroj, is one of the members of the syndicate. A mother of three, she says she joined the syndicate after years of violence at home and abject poverty. Her husband, now crippled, can no longer harm her or their children and depends on her for survival. She has been named in cases of robbery and chain-snatching since 2015. Karan Pasi (58), the oldest surviving history sheeter of the village, says women of the village entered the world of crime as no other means of livelihood were available for them in the absence of their husbands. "We don't have any land for farming, nor have we ever received any work opportunity. What should we eat and how do we feed our family?" asks Karan, who recently suffered partial paralysis. Booth level officer Dara Singh, a teacher at Prathmik Vidyalaya (Banskati), says despite repeated efforts, not a single family from Dera Paar Mohalla sends children to school. Of the village's nearly 250 voters, none have access to meaningful welfare. Politicians appear only before elections and vanish afterward. Dinesh Kumar, headmaster of Banskati's primary school, says while his school has 204 students on its rolls, half of them girls, none of the children from families with parents who have a criminal record, come to school. "Despite repeated efforts, these families have remained uninterested in educating their children," he says. The village has an inter college, a private degree college, a bank and a health care centre. The village has a woman gram pradhan, Sunita Singh, but locals say she has never once visited the mohalla. Her husband, Santosh Kumar, acts on her behalf, claiming she is unwell and that government officials have ignored their repeated requests for development and welfare schemes for these families. Kaushambi district magistrate Amit Pal says efforts will be made to rehabilitate the families and bring the children back to school. Chief development officer Vinod Ram Tripathi promises to extend livelihood schemes like the Rashtriya Grameen Ajivika Mission, Mukhyamantri Yuva Udhyami Yojana and women's self-help groups to uplift these families. Prof Ashish Saxena, head of the department of sociology at Allahabad University, says such a phenomenon cannot be blamed on poverty alone. "Illiteracy, patriarchy, domestic violence and criminal family backgrounds, combined over decades, to push these women toward crime. Banskati is a chilling example of what happens when illiteracy, neglect and generational crime collide-and when the desperation to survive pushes an entire mohalla of women into the very world their husbands once dominated," he adds. The letter 'D' in "D-39" stands for "District-level," and since 38 gangs already existed in Kaushambi police records-it became 'D-39', the latest addition, explains circle officer Shivank Singh. UP Women's Commission member Pratibha Kushwaha, nodal incharge for Pratapgarh, Kaushambi and Chitrakoot districts for the Commission, says she will write to senior officials to ensure welfare schemes reach these neglected families and their children are enrolled in school. "I will visit the village with officials and ensure things improve for these women," she adds. Kaushambi MP Pushpendra Saroj, speaking from Delhi, says he will visit the village next month and prioritise rehabilitation. "I will personally take up this village with officials and ensure that benefits of welfare schemes reach these families and their children go to school," he adds....