Citizens catch criminals more promptly

Instances are aplenty where notorious criminals have either been trapped or caught by chance by the public and handed over to police, as S. SHIVAKUMAR finds out.

As the shrieks of a middle-aged woman pierced the night air in an underclass locality in Egmore last week, the alarmed residents of the area rushed out of their houses. Within seconds, a youth scampering down the street, fell to their force.

Though the youth insisted that he was not a criminal, the neighbours handed him over to the local police station after a sound thrashing.

But the ``catch'' turned to be bigger than they thought. He was Solomon Isiah, wanted in connection with several house-breaking incidents in the area. The college drop-out whose father is a retired headmaster and mother a doctor, became a gambler and was slowly sucked into the world of crime.

The incident was another grim reminder that at times, citizens catch criminals more promptly than the cops. In quite a few cases, notroious criminals have either been trapped or caught by chance by public and handed over to the police.

The Solomon Isiah episode also exposed the poor intelligence network of the police as he had sold most of the stolen articles to leading jewellery showrooms.

Though the police are said to have an information network with the jewellers, at least with the leading showrooms, and they are required to alert them in case of any suspicion, these jewellers preferred to remain silent.

Police are still in the dark about the criminal gang behind several crime cases including the recent series of burglaries carried out after breaking the rolling shutter locks. Several shops in North Chennai and other parts of the city were targeted by this gang.

Another elusive master house-breaking criminal from North India, Pervez Ali, who ``specialises'' in targeting apartments, was also caught recently, not by the police, but by a smart citizen, who noticed him inside his house, bolted the door from outside and alerted the police. Ali had been evading the police net for nearly a decade.

The incidents leading to the arrest of Rathnapandian, involved in over 140 cases of house-breaking incidents, has all the ingredients of a crime thriller. A customer of a TV mechanic shop at Rajamangalam was shocked to see his own television in the shop. He waited for the fake ``owner of the television'' to come to the shop and had him arrested. This led to the arrest of one of the major house-breaking criminals in the city.

Rathnapandian allegedly confessed to the police that he had narrowly escaped from being caught several times by the police. In one incident, he claimed that a traffic constable intercepted him when he was taking his booty on a tri-cycle. Using his presence of mind, he had informed the constable that he was shifting his house and also requested the policeman to keep a watch over the house as his wife was alone. Only a day later did the police realise that he had stolen articles from the house.

In another incident, Rathnapandian was moving with a stolen television set on a bicycle. A person who noticed the television set slipping off the bicycle alerted Rathnapandian and helped him secure the television set to the vehicle. Later it turned out that the television set had been stolen from the house of the same person who had helped him. This came to light only when the good samaritan reached home and found his television set missing.

Similarly, another notorious house-breaking criminal, Saravanan, was caught in a house at Abhiramapuram and handed over to the police. He had been wanted by the police for over five years. The story of Manikanandan of Ashok Nagar, who was also caught by public on suspicion and given to the police, is similar.

A senior police officer says that crime detection was taking a dip as the crime wing did not keep proper watch on the movement of criminals released from jail. Moreover, even the gambling dens and other areas frequented by criminals are not under surveillance.

The need of the hour is carrot and stick policy, say officials. Reward the police who detect cases and penalise the inefficient.

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Section  : Southern States
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