Date:14/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/14/stories/2006011422100300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Policing needs to be strengthened in Rajarajeshwarinagar

LAW &ORDER To lodge a complaint, residents of Rajarajeshwarinagar have to go to the Byatarayanapura police station, which is about five km away, writes K.V. Subramanya

THE DAYLIGHT robbery in Rajarajeshwarinagar on Friday, in which an elderly woman was robbed of gold chains worth Rs. 30,000 by two youths, has highlighted the need for improving the policing in the area and hastening the process of setting up the proposed Rajarajeshwarinagar police station.

In the past few years, Rajarajeshwarinagar on Mysore Road has witnessed fast development.

Several new residential layouts, commercial establishments and IT companies have come up in the area, and crime too has increased there.

Five years ago, the city police recommended to the State Government to set up a police station in the crime-prone Rajarajeshwarinagar.

According to the proposal, the New Tharagupet police station would be shifted to Rajarajeshwarinagar.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) K.V. Sharathchandra said the draft notification regarding setting up of the new police station was awaiting clearance from the Chief Minister.

After a daring dacoity at Rajarajeshwarinagar on August 16, 2002, the then Police Commissioner H.T. Sangliana announced that a new police station would be set up in the area.

A six-member gang, armed with knives and pistols, had barged into Madhusudhan's house at Ideal Homes Layout in Rajarajeshwarinagar, stabbed three persons and made away with gold ornaments worth Rs. 1.25 lakh and cash.

The dacoits struck at Madhusudhan's house around 11.45 a.m. when the women were celebrating the Varamahalakshmi festival.

Cases of murder, burglary, robbery and chain snatching are being regularly reported from Rajarajeshwarinagar, particularly in Ideal Homes Layout.

In November 2005, two youths, who came on a motorcycle, snatched a gold chain worth Rs. 35,000 from Vasantha Jayaraj while she was walking near her house in Ideal Homes Layout around 6.30 a.m.

In July 2005, thieves removed an exhaust fan in the kitchen and entered the house of Gauri Lankesh, editor of a Kannada tabloid, in Ideal Homes Layout. They decamped with a pair of gold bangles and earrings she had kept on the dressing table and a DVD player.

In another incident reported from Ideal Homes Layout in May 2004, burglars made away with gold ornaments and silver articles worth Rs. 1 lakh from the house of Mohan Babu, a businessman.

Rajarajeshwarinagar and adjoining areas are now under the jurisdiction of the Byatarayanapura police. If the residents of Rajajarajeshwarinagar have to lodge a complaint with the police, they have to go to the Byatarayanapura police station, which is about five km away.

According to a senior police official, the Byatarayanapura police have jurisdiction over a vast area, which has several slums.

They are finding it difficult to patrol the area as they have limited resources, men as well as vehicles, he said.

On the other hand, some of the major crimes that were reported from Rajarajeshwarinagar and surrounding areas have remained unsolved for long. For instance, the police are yet to arrest the culprits who murdered the wife of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Health Officer Thandava Murthy and looted valuables from his house two years ago.