Poor policing has emboldened criminals, say residents

LUCKNOW: Cops’ failure to nail culprits in sensational crimes, delay tactics to save their skins and the habit to conceal crime have apparently boosted the confidence of miscreants. They are blatantly targeting the common man.

The crime trend of the past one month shows that the crowded localities of Lucknow West and its vicinity, which were believed to be safe, turned out be the most crime-prone. At least six sensational crimes have been reported from the area. Ironically, the police have failed to solve any of these so far.

“In the past six months, cops’ failure to crack all three major incidents of loot with traders- two in Naka and one in Talkatora-exposes the poor policing in the old city and its vicinity,” said a Naka trader requesting anonymity. He said the condition was worst in Naka, believed to be the transit point of trading in the city.

He said the traders were promised that the culprits would be collared soon after three kilogrammes of gold was robbed from Meerut jeweller Vishal Chand Jain on February 20. “It is over six months now, but the police have failed to trace the criminals. Taking advantage of police inac- tion, the criminals struck again and robbed R 9 lakh from three employees of a trading agency on August 6,” he added.

Om Prakash, a local resident, quipped, “When cops themselves are not safe, what can one expect from them? The attack on the police patrol party in Naka recently is the fall-out of their own lopsided approach”. He said the cops had now opted for concealing crime rather than solving it.

He said Naka inspector Vijay Prakash refused to register local woman Maya Arya’s FIR of loot. The case was registered only after SSPJ Ravinder Goud called him up and issued a stern warning.

He added, “The cops’ favourite mantra of investigation is to go slow on investigation till the case fades from public memory and then coolly shelve the file down the steel almirah”.

The attitude explained why the police were not able to solve the sensational murder and loot cases that rocked the city in the past few months, he added.