DC pinned and pushed cops, also helped them
Members of the police association always called up DC to speak about their woes.
Chennai: Apart from taking readers through routine crimes, be it those of crimes of passion, murders for crime, everyday traffic problems, frauds – DC has also been serving the readers a good mix of stories on cyber crimes, international terrorism with local links besides following -up on news items that would matter most to people.
When police kept on increasing the number of barricades with advertisements by local traders and hospitals on the OMR, it was DC that pointed out that driving on the prestigious IT highway had become a torture. Top brass in the city police reacted and removed all unnecessary barricades on the OMR. While other papers recorded narcotics arrests and seizures, DC went beyond the routine to trace the history of the queens of the narcotic trade who rule the drug world and crime streets in the city.
This newspaper published stories on cyber crimes, cheating on FB, murder linked to social media networks, how the IS recruited techies online for a salary and the global phishing racket that took innocent job aspirants for a costly ride. When the NIA busted a network of IS sympathisers in India in the last week of January it was DC which brought out the TN links in the IS network.
When city police arrested folk singer Kovan, this newspaper looked at the online impact of the arrest and found that the police action helped to push Kovan’s songs to new heights in the world of the internet. When a schoolboy was killed on the railway track while trying to take a selfie before a speeding train, only this newspaper had it on page 1. Be it the hushed up arrest of the CMD of an airlines by the city crime branch personnel or the CBI’s interstate raids on its own former chief’s son, it was the DC which came out first with details. Also, when the Delhi police registered an FIR against a serving TN IPS officer, DC reported it first.
After the December floods, when the city police’s visible police teams vanished, it was DC that pointed this out and brought the cops back to the streets. Even policemen found a shoulder to cry on in DC. Members of the police association always called up DC to speak about their woes. Members of the high profile bomb disposal squad also found this newspaper accessible when they wanted to discuss their professional problems. DC was the first to report on the ongoing tussle between the Chettinad group scions even after the death of MAM Ramasamy.