I have put the city back on track, says CP

He has been transferred as Inspector General (Law and Order)

J. Purnachandra Rao

Soon after he took over as the city police chief a little over two-and-a-half years ago, there was a sudden spurt in crime and the general public wondered as to how effectively he would deal with the challenge.

It didn’t take long for the public to realise that the soft-looking cop could act tough with criminals.

The government issued orders late on Monday night transferring Police Commissioner J. Purnachandra Rao as Inspector General (Law and Order).

Looking back at his two-year-eight-month stint in Visakhapatnam, Mr. Rao expressed satisfaction that he was able to realise most of his plans in putting the city back on track.

In a growing city one cannot expect the incidence of crime to come down drastically overnight but the detection of crime cases and recoveries had improved and this had considerable impact in checking the growth of crime in the city. Mr. Rao’s success lay in tackling the root of the problem and involving all stakeholders in checking the crime rate.

Technology

He realised the importance of using technology to control crimes at apartments and public places following the murder of a little girl Ashwini Mrudula at a posh apartment at Dondaparthy junction.

He held a series of meetings with Builders Association leaders, flat owners and dealers of cc cameras and succeeded in convincing them on the need to install remote cameras, CCTV and knowing the credentials of the watchman before appointing him.

The installation of cc cameras at the Railway Station helped in the tracing of school girls who fled their homes.

He was instrumental in the setting up of the Cyber Wing, which was recently upgraded into a Cyber Crime Investigation Cell. The cell had done excellent work in the detection of cyber crimes like detection of frauds at ATMs, arrest of the organisers of a ‘friendship club’, who lured an Intermediate student to part with thousands of rupees and ultimately drove him to suicide and more recently rescue of a job aspirant from the city from the clutches of his abductors in Bangkok.

DFIT

The Document Fraud Investigation Team (DFIT) set up recently has done excellent work which led to checking real estate crimes.