Moon Gazer continues……

The arrested criminal would never disclose his own name or that of his associates so as to allow his accomplices time to escape the local municipal limits.

The gangsters caught by us were all agile and fast runners. They would normally run away at superhuman speeds and were difficult to chase and catch. Use of coded calls to warn other gang members of danger was another feature of their modus operandi.

The arrest was a huge relief to us and to the public residing in south Delhi. The media was generous in its appreciation of our police work and we received favourable press. Some journalists wrote detailed accounts of our investigations and lauded the relentless efforts of the south district police. The officers of my team who had conducted the raids, arrests and searches, braving hostile and dangerous situations, were rewarded handsomely for their good work.

These included sub-inspectors Avnish Dwivedi, Ishwar Singh, Suresh Kaushik and Narinder Chawla; and inspectors Raghubir Singh and Ajit Singh. ACP Arun Kampani supervised the operation commendably as I oversaw the investigations.

After nearly two years of facing media-bashing, untold stress and moon-gazing, we could now heave a sigh of relief and derive tremendous satisfaction from what we had achieved. In one go we had solved nine cases of housebreaking with murder and thirteen other cases from other parts of Delhi. Parties and social dos were organized within and outside the south district to felicitate us. We were over the moon, savouring the sweet taste of our success. Little did we know that our jubilation was to be short-lived.

On the conclusion of our investigation, during which we were able to recover substantial amounts of robbed goods and arrest other associates, the culprits were no longer needed by us for investigation and were therefore remanded to judicial custody by the court. They were, however, wanted by several other police teams, both in Delhi and outside.

To be continued….