Moon Gazer continues……

The criminals arrested in the Preet Vihar case belonged to Guna district of Madhya Pradesh.

In the absence of any other clue regarding the perpetrators of the serial killings in my district, I thought we had to approach the crimes differently from other cases of armed house robberies. These were criminals with completely archaic modus operandi who used stones and killed people in their sleep without any reason. Whenever sighted, as during the chase after the Mausam Bhawan incident and in the Preet Vihar case, they were found bare-bodied with only their undergarments or loincloths. Clues regarding them needed to be looked for, perhaps in their social customs and way of living. I felt their community had to be studied sociologically to get a breakthrough in investigations of crimes committed by them. The only place of their origin known to us was Guna in Madhya Pradesh, as per the case file of the Preet Vihar case.

I decided to send a young and resourceful officer to Guna, who would stay put there, make extensive inquiries with the help of the local police about the resident criminal gangs operating in Delhi and bring back as much information as possible on the de-notified tribe. I had to choose the officer carefully, and I made sure he was not serving in a police station. I was aware that officers serving in police stations would, on my orders, visit the place but would be in a hurry to get back to their regular jobs. I had to look for someone who had the necessary flair for fieldwork and the perseverance to look for that extra bit of information that would make the difference between failure and success.

A sub-inspector who had, until recently, been serving at the Pushp Vihar police post in my district was then in the reserve pool of officers in district police lines. I felt he would have the necessary desire to prove himself by completing the assignment given to him successfully. It was only a matter of time before the sub-inspector proved that my choice was spot on.

To be continued….