After the incident of armed burglary by unidentified persons wherein a 23-year- old person was murdered and four of his family members were injured on September 10, Dehradun police claimed to have intensified vigilance through police patrolling and developing sources at local levels.
Yet, things on the ground remain grim, accentuating panic among the residents. Crimes are occurring at regular intervals in the State capital, seemingly putting the police claim of tightening noose around the criminals to ridicule.
A case of burglary reported on Sunday night in which the criminals burgled an electronic shop, located adjacent to Nainital Bank, Shimla Bypass, in the busy market area under Patelnagar Police Station made the police boast ring hollow. The miscreants are said to have decamped with computers, TV sets and other goods worth lakhs of rupees.
Police patrolling teams might have crossed the area where shop was located during the night, but they failed to stop them from carrying on their loot, the residents said, venting panic. In his written complaint, R Singh stated his shop had been burgled by some unidentified persons on Sunday night. Taking cognisance of this, a case under sections 457 and 330 of IPC was registered in the Patelnagar Police Station on Monday. Teams have been formed and they began searching the criminals concerned, police said in their routine statements.
“looked against the backdrop of police ceaselessly bragging about pulling all stops to clamp down on the criminals operating across the city, the latest burglary is enough to cause cold shiver running down our spines,” said a resident of a posh locality of the city.
State additional director general of police (law and order) Ram Singh Meena along with SSP Ajay Rautela and other police officers had recently made rounds various places in the city to see for themselves as to whether the police patrolling and police vigilance in the area are going on in the manner as suggested by them.
Besides, the police officers seem inclined to give clean chits to the policemen who are on duty at the places where the crimes are occurring. However, theft, burglary, chain snatching and other offences are going on unimpeded with the miscreants escaping unscathed from the scenes of their crimes.
Observers opined that police seem to be lacking in the basics of policing, resulting in the spiraling crime graphs in the State capital. According to them, police should conduct verification of the residents, especially in those areas where large number of migrants are residing.
“Police patrolling should further intensify and police must seek cooperation from the people as every person is police sans the uniform. Police should lay emphasis on developing sources among the residents in the area too. This is the rudiment of policing to maintain peace and control the crimes,” one of them said.