Police take a relook at closed cases

The city police have taken steps to clear pending cases on a priority basis

For almost six years, the investigation into the murder of a cobbler in Kempe Gowda Nagar police station jurisdiction had been shelved after booking it as an unnatural death case (non-cognisable). Based on an anonymous letter that the police stumbled upon recently, the murder was cracked with the arrest of the accused.

The K.G. Nagar police, who had not verified the letter so far, swung into action and traced a waiter in a hotel, whose name had been mentioned in the letter as an eyewitness to the murder of 40-year–old cobbler Jayaramu. A detailed inquiry led the police to arrest Pramod M (22), who later confessed to hammering the cobbler to death over a trivial row in Chamarajpet on April 24, 2008. The then investigating officer, who did not make any headway in the investigations, listed the murder in the unnatural death register (UDR) and closed the case until it was reopened by the present Inspector C.D. Nagraj recently.

The cobbler’s murder is among the 17,000 cases, which are being reopened by the City police following a direction from Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar, who has initiated measures to clear pending cases on a priority basis.

What prompted the Police Commissioner to order reopening of the cases was the huge number of pending cases that he found during a routine inspection. Taking a strong exception to this, Mr. Auradkar directed the officials to complete investigations and file charge sheets on priority. As per the plan, the exact number of pending cases had been prepared by a committee headed by Joint Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners of Police at the jurisdictional level.

The staff at the police station starting from the rank of Inspector to constables had been tasked to clear pending cases, and the cases had been distributed among them with a set deadline to complete investigations. Cases, which are completed, would be reviewed by the committee before submitting charge sheet before the jurisdictional magistrate courts. “With this exercise, hundreds of cases that have been shelved due to various reasons are being brought to light and justice delivered,” Mr. Auradkar said, citing the K.G. Nagar case.

The key issues like people management and work distribution, which had been ignored by the officers, were also being redressed, Mr. Auradkar said, adding that this exercise would help people get speedy justice.