Friday, February 22, 2013

Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Transfer of cases embarrasses Navi Mumbai police?' that was published in Newsband




Transfer of cases embarrasses Navi Mumbai police?
By Dinesh Kamath
NAVI MUMBAI: Two high-profile murder cases, those of builder Sunil Kumar Lahoria and Sandhya Singh, were transferred from the Navi Mumbai police to the Mumbai crime branch. This has hurt the ego of many policemen of Navi Mumbai. These policemen feel that this development has affected the image of Navi Mumbai police.
Since the murder victims were influential persons, their respective families could get this transfer of cases done by wielding political influence. It would be wrong to say that this transfer of cases were due to inability of Navi Mumbai police to carry out an in-depth investigation and go into the root of these cases.
In fact before the transfer of the cases, Navi Mumbai police had done a remarkable job and had come up with some interesting clues and leads that are helping the Mumbai Crime Branch to get a firm grip on both the cases.
One cannot underestimate the investigating powers of Navi Mumbai police since had they been so bad in the matter of investigating, then how could they detect the murder case of the CIDCO clerk, Atul Mhatre, in Panvel recently and also mastermind the arrest of Dattatray Rokade (53), who had raped and killed a five-year-old girl? So, it is not that the Navi Mumbai police are unable to conduct probes properly.
That is the reason why the top police in Navi Mumbai are feeling embarrassed about the fact that the two high-profile cases were snatched from their hands and handed to their Mumbai counterparts. Navi Mumbai police are criticized for its poor informer network and also lack of modern technological tools for better investigations. They are also accused of their casual attitude towards local crimes. If they have to win the confidence of the public they will have to cultivate a clean image and have effective local police stations. It is not that they are incompetent but they should admit that there are many important criminal cases that have gone unsolved by them. Another thing is Navi Mumbai police tend to bow down to political pressures. On the other hand, their Mumbai counterparts are too tough and cannot be easily bought by top politicians.
Navi Mumbai police were instrumental in arresting three persons in the Lahoria case, including retired encounter specialist Emmanuel Amolik. Even in the Sandhya Singh case, the Navi Mumbai police did plenty of ground work which their Mumbai counterparts are finding extremely beneficial.
But this setback caused by the transfer of cases has made the Navi Mumbai police absolutely determined to do something drastic to give tremendous boost to their image. 

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