UPSC Mains 2022 GS Paper 3 Q9: model answer
Discuss the types of organised crimes. Describe the linkages between terrorists and organised crime that exist at the national and transnational levels.
What the question wants
Discuss the types of organised crime and the links between terrorists and organised crime at national and transnational levels.
How to structure it
Types, then two-level linkages.
- Types
- National linkages
- Transnational linkages
- Brief response
How to think it through
Types: drug trafficking, arms, human trafficking, extortion, contract killing, cyber fraud, counterfeit, wildlife, smuggling, land mafia, sand mining. BNS 2023 Sec 111 defines organised crime. National: Punjab gangster-terror (NIA 2022 cases), NE insurgents extortion, LWE levies, Dawood/D-company 1993 Mumbai. Transnational: D-company-ISI, Golden Crescent drugs fund terror, FICN from abroad, cyber scam compounds in Myanmar/Cambodia trafficking Indians.
Model answer
The 1993 Bombay blasts, which killed 257 people, were carried out with explosives landed on the Raigad coast by a smuggling syndicate. A crime network had become a terror network overnight. The BNS, 2023 now defines organised crime in Section 111.
Types of organised crime
- Drug, arms and human trafficking.
- Extortion and contract killing.
- Cyber fraud, including scam compounds abroad.
- Counterfeit currency, smuggling and wildlife trade.
- Land, sand and liquor mafias.
Links at the national level
- Gangster-terror nexus in Punjab and Haryana, probed by the NIA since 2022.
- Extortion 'taxes' by North-East insurgents and Maoists.
- Local criminals hired for logistics, safe houses and weapons.
Links at the transnational level
- D-company and its foreign patrons.
- Golden Crescent drug money funding terror in J&K and Punjab.
- Fake currency printed abroad and pushed across borders.
- Hawala networks spanning the Gulf.
Response
- NIA-led joint probes against gang-terror networks, and MCOCA-style laws in more states.
- Seize the money: property attachment under PMLA and the NDPS Act.
- Prison reform, since many gangs are run from jails by phone.
- Global cooperation through Interpol and FATF.
Crime supplies the tools; terror supplies the purpose.
Draw: Two concentric circles: national linkages inside, transnational outside.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
BNS Section 111, 1993 Bombay blasts, D-company, gangster-terror nexus (NIA 2022), extortion, narco-terror, FICN, hawala, Golden Crescent, cyber scam compounds, MCOCA, Interpol.
Where most answers lose marks
- Listing types of crime but not explaining the linkages at both levels.
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26 Jul 2026Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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