Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Fictitious cases a challenge

When the watchman of the Srinivasa Ventures in Goulidoddi village, Srinivas, complained that four unidentified persons hurled a bomb at him on April 4, the Rayadurgam police thought of several motives.

There were no doubts about the intentions of Srinivas, as he sustained serious injuries on his hand in the blast. The manager of the company, Anjan Reddy, in his complaint, suspected the involvement of some locals.

Based on the complaint, the police conducted raids. However, the `suspects' pleaded ignorance and even as the police were mulling over the possibility of either business rivalry or involvement of extremists behind the attack, forensic experts disapproved of this and came out with a different version. The explosive substance was found to be gelatine and not a bomb, which would explode on being hurled. Two days later, to the surprise of the investigating officers, the victim confessed that it was a false complaint. He told the police that he chanced upon a gelatine stick. The explosion occurred when he hit it with a stone out of curiosity.

While the police heaved a sigh of relief as the case was almost solved, the incident raised a couple of questions. Why did Anjan Reddy and Srinivas lodge false complaints? Cannot the police register a case for misleading them?

This is not an isolated case. There were instances when complainants approached the police with concocted stories and invalidated the latter's efforts. But, for reasons best known to the authorities, the police had not booked criminal cases against such complainants.

A case in point is that of Ashish Kumar Agarwal, son of a businessman, whose alleged kidnap in October 2001 initially created sensation. However, it subsequently turned out to be fictitious. Special teams were constituted, involvement of Mumbai mafia gangs suspected and the police had to incur huge expenditure during investigation.

After a few days, the victim walked into a Mumbai police station with a cooked up story. The case was transferred from the Saifabad police to the Detective Department to ascertain Ashish's version. A lie-detector test was also conducted on him.

Later, the then City Commissioner of Police, P. Ramulu, announced that Ashish's kidnap incident was fictitious and prosecution would be initiated against him as soon as "sufficient evidence'' was gathered. However, nearly 18 months after the incident all that the police had to say was "the case is still under investigation.''

Similarly, the Saifabad police apprehended a Nanded-based salesman, Aliuddin, who allegedly made a kidnap attempt, demanding Rs. 5 lakhs from her aunt, Anees Qayyum. Aliuddin and his accomplices were arrested and sent to judicial custody. Though both the cases were more or less similar, the police chose to register a case in one incident, while "still probing" the other.

Another case of false complaint was that of a businessman, Amarnath Goud, of Gowliguda Chaman, who lodged a complaint with the Afzalgunj police stating that four men abducted his 13-year-old son, Ranadhir, on the night of June 8, 2002. After questioning Amarnath for a few hours, the police suspected foul play.

A couple of hours after the police warned Amarnath, Ranadhir walked into the Charminar police station narrating a dubious story. Though the versions of Amarnath, his wife, Ramadevi and Ranadhir were self-contradictory, the police did not initiate action against anybody so far.

Though there is clinching evidence against fake complainants, it is not understood why the police have not initiated action in some cases, while dragging the investigation in some others.

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