‘MANUAL INTELLIGENCE TOTALLY MISSING IN TODAY’S POLICING’

experts said absence of regularly monitored ground intelligence force cops to rely on chance intelligence. Lack of ground intelligence is the key reason why the murder of the gas agency cashier has not been worked out, they said.

The cashier, Shyam Singh, 45, was shot dead in Gomti Nagar on Monday and the assailants escaped with ₹10 lakh.

The 60-man strong team deployed to investigate the murder rounded up 25 suspects, inspected footage of over 50 cameras and scoured call data records of at least 200 people within 48 hours, but a conclusive lead eludes them. “Manual intelligence needed to solve such cases is totally absent in today’s policing. Police rely on electronic surveillance, or, intelligence they get by chance, to solve cases,” said former Inspector General (retd) of Police RK Chaturvedi, adding, “This over-dependence on electronic surveillance limits the possibility of building a network of informants on the ground that provide police valuable manual intelligence.” This shortcoming is the apparent reason why the police has failed even to identify assailants of the cashier despite releasing a screen grab showing the accused fleeing on motorbike.

“Senior officials must take accountability and establish better communication with the constabulary. This will make it easier to solve such cases as a team,” said DSP (retd) Harpal Singh.