SIT in charge, Bengaluru cops red faced?
The team comprises 21 handpicked officials, including the SIT chief and the chief investigating officer.
Bengaluru: A day after eminent journalist, editor and activist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her house in Rajarajeshwari Nagar by unknown assailants, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) B.K. Singh was constituted under the direction of the chief minister to investigate the sensational murder.
The team comprises 21 handpicked officials, including the SIT chief and the chief investigating officer. While the Chief Minister’s intention; on bringing Gauri’s killers to book at the earliest possible time is loud and clear in setting up the SIT, the question is why could the City police not be entrusted with the job when it was their ‘baby’?
“This is unprecedented that SIT has been set up to investigate a heinous crime that happened in the City,” said an officer on condition of anonymity. Former director general and inspector general of police R. Srikumar said the City police should have the confidence of the government, “They should have handled the case and if they had failed to detect it then the constitution of the SIT could have been the next option. It is a very sensitive case,” he said.
The Gauri murder case (crime no 221/2017 under Sections 302 (murder) Indian Penal Code and 25 of Arms Act, 1959, which was registered in Rajarajeshwari Nagar police station on September 5 was handed over to the SIT within no time. “They (City police) could have formed a team and drawn up the initial line of investigation or given it to their Central Crime Bureau (CCB). Was there a confidence or trust deficit? Why was the SIT constituted on someone else’s turf? Why did the City police let it go?” questioned another officer.
Bengaluru City police force comprises one fifth of the State police personnel. The CCB is a specialized wing with two deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) and five assistant commissioners of police (ACPs), to investigate complex and sensitive cases including heinous crimes.
Last year after the sensational Rudresh murder case the government was under pressure to hand it over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), but the then police dispensation stood their ground; investigated the case and brought the assassins to justice.
“The investigation was tasked to a select team of officers in the City and source information came from the beat constables. The same arrangement could have done it even now. It is an honour for a police officer to be entrusted with challenging assignments,” said another officer.