Unsolved cases prove nightmare for police

Bangalore: Some of the unsolved cases reported this year have turned into a nightmare for the city police. Starting with the rector’s murder in Yeshwanthpur to the recent ATM attack case, the police have failed to get any clues that would lead to the arrest of the accused. Several important cases are lying undetected, despite the police forming special teams to crack the cases.

In most of the unsolved murder cases, the police say, the motive is yet to be established. “In any murder case, we look at the motive behind the murder first. Once we know it, we can zero in on the people behind it. But in some of the unsolved murder cases, we have not got any clue about the motive. This has become a major hurdle in our investigations,” a senior police officer said.

It could be the murder of Father K.J. Thomas, the Rector of St. Peter’s Pontifical Semi­nary in Yeshwanthpur, or the murder of Shamshulla Uda, the 65-year old director of Al-quds Minorities Credit Cooperative Society Limited, the police have no clue whether they were killed for monetary benefits, personal rivalry or any other reason. Similar is the murder case of 42-year-old jeweller, Shravan Kumar, who was brutally murdered inside his shop in Rajajinagar.

“In all these cases, the assailants had taken away valuables. But we could not completely believe it’s just a case of murder for gain. At the same time, no other angle emerged strongly during the course of investigation,” the officer said.

Also, the fact that culprits being first-time offenders in some of the cases is giving the police a hard time. “In the ATM attack case, the accused is not seen in any police record. In such cases, we need to collect every minute detail about him. Though his picture is available, he has not been traced so far. We do not have any mobile number belonging to him which is another hurdle in the case,” he said.

The city police, meanwhile, are conducting a special drive to take a re-look at the unsolved murder cases. “We will try to look at the cases afresh and look again at the angles that were probed earlier. Also we will try to look at these cases in different angles that were not done earlier. Not only the cases that were reported this year, we will also reinvestigate unsolved cases reported over the last few years,” said Hemanth Nimbalkar, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).