DCP Jitendranath's tenure to end, Bengaluru intelligence wing goes empty
Bengaluru: The last bastion of the Intelligence apparatus of the city police will fall this month-end with the superannuation of Deputy Commissioner of Police K.N. Jitendranath, who had blown off the lid of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) terror conspiracy in Karnataka, the then Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra along with then joint commissioner (East) B. Dayananad.
After Mr Jitendranath demits office on March 31, Bengaluru police will have no one to hold brief for Intelligence with vacancies that continue to exist in sensitive posts including Joint Commissioner (Intelligence), Deputy Commissioner (Crime) and DCP (VIP security), despite empty assurances from the government that security of the city is their top priority.
“The city Intelligence wing is an empty cupboard. The vacancies in key posts have not been filled up yet,” said an official source. The downfall in the Intelligence wing started with the former Intelligence chief – Additional Director General of Police Gopal B. Hosur opting for voluntary retirement in 2013. Mr Hosur had served the city police as DCP (Central), when Kannada thespian Dr Rajkumar was kidnapped by forest brigand Veerappan and had investigated the role of notorious Dandupalya gang, which was involved in the worst ever serial killings in the state post-Independence.
He had also probed the terror attack on the Indian Institute of Science in 2005 and the serial blasts of 2008. Mr Hosur’s exit from the police was barely filled when another ace Intelligence officer V.S. D’Souza, who had cracked the first serial terror blast case in Bengaluru, Goa and the then Andhra Pradesh by proscribed organization Deendar Anjuman in 2000, retired in 2014. Mr D’souza’s impeccable investigation in the serial church blast cases is even now considered as a ready reckoner for investigating officers.
Mr Jitendranath is the last officer standing in the deserted corridor of city Intelligence. “The government should fill up the vacancies with officers who know the city and have an aptitude for Intelligence and serious investigation,” the officer said.
