Night of shame continues......

While the protests and demonstrations raged in the city, the media, particularly the electronic media, was full of anti-police rhetoric. I felt it was important for me to take the brunt of the attacks myself and insulate my team working on the case. I had many an unpleasant encounter with star TV anchors, but the good thing was that their misplaced aggression ended at my doorstep. The team working on the case could focus on the investigation without having to deal with the media.

From the accused Ram Singh the role of Akshay Kumar Singh aka Thakur had come to light. Akshay worked with Ram Singh as a cleaner of the bus. Ram Singh knew the mobile number Akshay called to speak to his family back home. He shared the number with the police; it was registered with a service provider in Aurangabad, Bihar. A team under Inspector Rituraj was dispatched by air to Patna on 18 December. The inspector contacted Pradeep Kumar Shrivastava, inspector general of police, Special Branch, Bihar, who was a distant relative of his. Inspector Rituraj shared details of the case and requested the local police’s cooperation in arresting Akshay from his village. Instructions were immediately passed on to Aurangabad’s SP and filtered down the official hierarchy, all the way to the last rung. Inspector Rituraj hired a Scorpio SUV and drove from Patna to Aurangabad with his team. They reached late on the night of 18 December and camped out in a motel.

On 19 December, the Delhi Police team established contact with the staff of the police station in Tandwa, in whose jurisdiction Akshay’s village was located. The area was affected by left-wing extremism and the police station in Tandwa had been attacked four times by Naxalites in the recent past. The station was therefore heavily fortified, with personnel from the Bihar Military Police deployed on its rooftop, armed with light machine guns.

To be continued.....