Hyderabad: Law enforcement agencies across the world follow the concept of “visible policing'' — policemen/women clearly present all over the city and increased patrolling on two and four wheelers and even cycles. This is an effective way of crime prevention.
When it comes to Telangana police, which boasts of using high end technology and gadgets to keep tabs on terrorist and Maoist activities, the concept of visible policing is absent. This has perhaps emboldened criminals who seem to be having no fear of the law.
Two persons were stabbed to death in public in the city within a span of just 72 hours last week, pointing to some glaring failures on the part of the police, particularly lack of patrolling and no visible presence of policemen.
In Hyderabad, the presence of policemen is limited to the main thoroughfares while the lanes and by-lanes where offences mostly take place, are ignored. Vijayawada-based industrialist T Ramprasad was stabbed to death at Punjagutta on July 6. A day later, Syed Muqthar, 22, was murdered at Kalapathar.
“'Though it is true that visible policing goes a long way in prevention of crime, lack of manpower is our biggest bottleneck. We have sufficient vehicles but VIP duties consume a lot of our time and therefore it becomes impossible to have policemen in lanes and by-lanes. If we have sufficient manpower we can increase patrolling and the presence of policemen,” says a police official, requesting anonymity.
This may hold true of Punjagutta, where Chief Minister K. Chandra-sekhar Rao and Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan reside.
Most of the murders have taken place between 6 pm and 10 pm and the way the murders are being executed — most times in full public view — clearly indicates that the attackers have no fear of the law; they execute the operation and walk away from the spot. In all four murder cases, the accused vanished from the scene in no time, which was essentially due to the fact that there were no policemen or police patrol in the vicinity.
Ironically, Panjagutta police station boasts state-of-the -art infrastructure, which caught the attention of the Kerala Chief Minister and Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister when they visited. It is also the first to include bicycle patrols. The two murders which two? prove that despite this the police are not alert enough.
Inspector B Mohan Kumar of the Panjaguttta police says that there are three patrolling units under the police station "and they work around the clock and patrol throughout the day. Apart from that, there are the Blue Colts who rush to the rescue of victims of any offence. They assess the situation and inform their superiors,'' he said.
