Recovery of dead bodies from lakes and ponds in Ranchi has raised questions about security around several water bodies splashed across the city. In the absence of any permanent security and system of surveillance calm water of reservoirs has become a favourite dumping yard for dead bodies. And the police are planning regular patrolling around the water bodies in order to avert such incidents.
On May 9, residents of locality adjoining Ranchi lake, commonly known as Bara Talaab, were shocked to discover a floating dead body on the surface of the lake. The body was taken out of water by police and subsequently sent for post mortem. But that was not the end of recovery of dead bodies. On Sunday morning another dead body from Karamtoli Talaab was found floating over the surface. The body that was recovered from Karamtoli Talaab has been identified as 26-year-old Sanjay Kumar Singh of a Tiklitola whereas the dead body recovered from Bara Talaab has not been identified yet.
“Now the cases of this nature are coming so the patrolling party will use torches to find out people loitering around or sitting near a water body,” SSP Ranchi, Prabhat Kumar said.
Notwithstanding the sensitivity of water reservoirs that supports lives of inhabitants thriving around it the police’s safety mechanism does not go beyond regular surveillance around a water body. Full time deputation is not even in the books of Ranchi police to prevent reoccurrence of these incidents which has become an annual affair at some water bodies.
“There is no direction to depute police personnel near a water body but we regularly patrol the area. Moreover, teams from Hindpirhi and Daily Market police stations also patrol around Bara Talaab,” said PS in-charge of Kotwali.
A dead body soaked in water usually leads to gradual destruction of evidences thus making identification of the deceased a difficult task. The headless dead body recovered from the banks of Suwarnrekha River near Hethu colony under Jagannathpur police station is yet to be identified as the police is now relying only on the recovery of the head to proceed on the matter. The post mortem report is still awaited and is likely to come by Wednesday.
Nonetheless, police believe a swelled body does not affect investigation to a great extent at the same time acknowledging that water bodies do encourage criminals to dump a body.
“Yes, it is like that (encouraging criminals to dump body). Investigation is never hampered unless the body remains submerged for four or five days,” added the Ranchi SSP. Ranchi police have not ruled out incidents of drowning of people in inebriated condition.