Telangana police may have increased the strength of their patrol vehicles to keep a check on illegal activities and untoward incidents, but two recent incidents in the city have raised questions over the efficiency of its patrolling.
In the first case at Sanathnagar, a woman hanged herself from the railing of Fateh Nagar flyover and in the other, K. Rakesh Reddy, prime accused in the murder of NRI businessman Chigurupati Jayaram, allegedly made rounds with the latter’s body in a car.
With a rise in such incidents, the police department has been forced to review its patrolling patterns.
On February 5, Mangatayaru, a housewife from SRT Colony in Sanathnagar, left home in a fit of rage following an altercation with her husband, Bheemeshwar Rao, a lorry driver. While leaving home, she took a sari along with her and hours later, the woman was found hanging under the bridge. She resorted to the extreme step around 9.30 p.m. and the body was noticed around 5.30 a.m. the next day.
Police claim that the incident went unnoticed till the next day as that path comes to a dead end and there was no movement of vehicles in the area. On the fateful night, even the Blue Colt vehicles (both car and motorbike) of Sanathnagar police, which are supposed to patrol the entire sector, failed to notice the hanging body. “Our team usually does not visit that place as there are very few houses and business establishments to keep an eye on,” an officer asserted.
A senior officer, however, argued, “It is their duty to patrol even the inaccessible areas in the limits. But, due to the shortage of staff, they are forced to keep a watch only on specific locations.” He said that the department had allotted an SUV and a two-wheeler to each sector of a police station.
In the second case, the investigators are verifying reports to find whether Rakesh Reddy had waited near Nallakunta police station with Jayaram’s body in a car and tried to meet Nallakunta inspector S. Srinivasulu. The officer was later transferred by Hyderabad Commissioner Anjani Kumar, following allegations of his involvement in the murder.