Tuesday, May 20, 2003
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Tamil Nadu
By K. Manikandan
In an effort to run away from the law, some persons attempt extreme measures to divert the attention of the police only to find themselves in neck-deep trouble, sooner or later. The case of debt-ridden couple in a Southern suburb, who tried to cheat the police last week, illustrates the risks that some are willing to take. There have been earlier instances of first-time offenders stage managing crimes and filing false complaints to evade police action for a considerable period of time. But in this incidence at Anakaputhur, the police saw through the weaver couples's complaint in no time. In a complaint filed with Sankar Nagar police station, Girija, the weaver's wife stated that she stepped out of the front door of the house in Gopal Chetty Street in the wee hours of Wednesday, when a four-member gang surrounded her and threatened at knife-point to part with the cash she had in the house. She went on to add that a two-year-old boy in the house was picked up by the gangsters and taken out of the house and that the culprits left with Rs.1 lakh in cash, after inflicting injuries on her neck. The case was registered. But the investigating authorities smelt a rat almost immediately. The woman reported that she had received the cash from one of her relatives, who, when called on to support the statement, denied it. Within four hours, the `victim' had turned a `criminal' for misleading the police. The woman broke down during an investigation by the women police personnel. She claimed that she was `forced' to act like that because of the money she lost while trying to find a job for her two sons, one of whom is handicapped. She had placed trust with one Mohan, a job broker, who assured her that he would find jobs at the Chennai airport. All that for a `fee' for which the woman and her husband had sold their house. They paid cash to Mohan, who later absconded. Pushed to the wall, the couple in a bid to escape the situation, filed the bogus complaint. It later came out that the injury on the woman's neck was self-inflicted, and was meant to be a cover for their deception. Police officers explain that extreme anxiety drives people like the weaver couple to resort to such instances of bogus complaints, that were rare, but not unheard of. "People feel disgraced, when they discover they have been cheated by people they trust very much. Desperation to avoid embarrassment forces such people to take the risk of filing a false complaint in order to divert the attention of the police and more importantly, the people around them", police officers said. Instances of persons filing false complaints and driving the wits out of the police for a considerable period of time are nothing new. They either distort the facts or simply narrate fictitious tales. Some months ago in Egmore, a major burglary was reported from the house of a South Africa based businessman when he was out on vacation with his family. The almirahs were found broken open and a large quantity of jewels reported stolen. Investigations later revealed that the businessman's wife had stage-managed the `crime', after a domestic quarrel. Similarly, small-time businessmen who thrive on `rotation of funds' and who are susceptible to fall into bad debts very easily, fake incidents of crime and lodge bogus complaints, but end up getting trapped in the police net just as easily as they filed the complaint. A jeweller in the city filed a complaint that 8 kg of gold jewels were stolen from his shop, only to confess later that he done so as his fortunes had dipped and also with the hope that it would keep the money-lenders away from his doors. Filing false cases of burglary and damage by persons who want to make a fast buck from the insurance agent are not unheard of. On certain occasions, police initiate action against people who file bogus complaint for their adamant stance and also for taking the law enforcing personnel for granted. But in many cases, the police excuse them. "The person who filed the complaint was let out on a humanitarian basis, in this case", officials said on the Anakaputhur incident. It was a case of initiating action against a woman who was forced to file a bogus complaint to save her own skin and this course of action did not appeal to the police. As it was not a `major' crime, penalising her would only add insult to injury, they felt.
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