Delhi Underground

Logging in

In an uncommon incident,Delhi Police allowed an accused to access the Internet. On Saturday,police arrested a Nepali man,who claimed to be an actor. To verify the claims of the accused,the police switched on a laptop inside the police station and the accused was asked to type in his name. To their surprise,the accused did show police many videos in which he was an actor. Police said the actor bragged that he was very popular in Nepal and asked for preferential treatment.

Setting an example

Serial killer Chandrakant Jha’s case has come to become a historical example of sleuthing at West Delhi’s Hari Nagar police station where FIRs of the murders against him were registered. While the original investigating officer in the case has quit and moved to Australia,whenever he visits the country,he meets his former colleagues to follow up on the case. He is still lauded by his former colleagues for his investigation of the case. Senior police officers remember the frustration on recovering two notes with decapitated bodies outside Tihar Jail,and scanning the streets of Outer Delhi in search of Jha. The serial killer’s demeanour was described as cool and calm after his arrest and officers remember the chilling precision of his memory in guiding the police to the banks of the Yamuna where mutilated parts of the bodies were thrown. Often,when seemingly difficult cases emerge,senior officers at the police station say they tell juniors about the investigation of Jha’s case to boost their morale. The record books of the police station show that at least seven letters sent to his home address in Madhepura in Bihar were not received. Officers acquainted with the case at the police station say he never gave the correct house address. His wife had moved out of the Delhi address recorded with the police months after his arrest in 2007,and while police officers know she has shifted,his Delhi address was not updated in police records.

Trading charges

A recent rape case highlighted the lack of security measures in the municipal schools. While Opposition Congress was pondering over their strategy to attack BJP,the ruling party in Delhi’s civic agencies,a BJP leader hit out at the Opposition first. A senior BJP councillor was heard telling his colleagues about a statement given by the Leader of Opposition,in which he said that money should not be wasted on CCTV cameras as they lie non-operational despite being on the premises of every school. “He sarcastically told us that budget on CCTV would be a futile exercise as cameras will stop functioning after a while,but now he must know what role CCTV could have played in this rape incident,” the councillor said.

Another resignation

Another senior official of the Delhi University administration resigned recently. This follows the resignations of deans of the examination branch. The pro vice-chancellor’s resignation was accepted on Wednesday. Although personal reasons were cited for his resignation,some university officials said tiffs with other senior officials led to the resignation. With the Pro-VC being on the committee for the four-year undergraduate programme,his resignation is a serious blow to the university especially at a time when the administration is drawing flak from teachers for various measures,officials said.