Moon Gazer continues……

We lifted fingerprints from the spot, which were sent to the bureau for identification. Lo and behold, some of them matched those retrieved from the Veerawali house. However, cross-checking with the Crime Record Office of Delhi Police revealed that the fingerprints did not match those of any known criminal on record. It was clear to me that a gang was active in my district and had already struck twice. That it would strike again, sooner rather than later, was almost a certainty. I was not prepared to see another such ghastly crime committed in my district and was determined to capture the culprits before they struck again. A sense of guilt had already begun to seep into me. Images of the battered heads of the old lady and the pretty young girl who had yet to live her life haunted me.

I addressed my officers and men in sampark sabhas (a term used in the Delhi Police to describe meetings between senior officers and their subordinates) repeatedly, exhorting them to take every possible measure to prevent the recurrence of such crimes. I held discussions with my officers, pored over maps of the district and its police stations, reviewed deployment and repositioned night pickets and patrols to block probable entry and exit points of the marauding gang in residential areas. Night watchmen and private guards of south Delhi colonies were included in the initiative and joint patrols started, particularly during dark nights. An awareness campaign in residential areas on dos and don’ts was begun. Care was taken not to create any panic. For four subsequent months, there was no repeat of the crimes. However, I must confess, I was cognizant of the vast spread of my jurisdiction, with its long borders with the Faridabad and Gurugram districts of Haryana, as also of the unlimited number of routes that the gangsters could take to access and exit the area. There was no way the district could be secured completely, regardless of the amount of manpower available.

To be continued……