Gangsters a step ahead of cops when it comes to technology
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police had made tall claims by announcing that it would modernise its police force and would usher in the era of smart policing. But when gangster Manjeet Mahal’s father was gunned down outside his heavily fortified house in Mitraon village, the investigators were baffled at the tech savviness employed by Mahal. Several Delhi Police officials have also alleged that the police force are way behind when it comes to adapting the latest technology. According to a highly-placed police source, Manjeet Mahal had mounted several CCTV cameras outside the heavily fortified house and the record would also be live streamed onto a smart phone. “These gangsters are extremely tech savvy. When we interrogate them they always show up with a cheap phone but that is a façade. In Mahal’s case, the live feed of the CCTV footage could be accessed anywhere.”
The police had earlier believed that Mahal had taken precautions as he had feared that his family would be targeted. But it was also found that Mahal and other gangsters like him wanted to keep a record of anyone who would visit the area, creating predictable patterns and would anticipate future attacks. “These gangsters had created a record of everyone who would visit their house. They were able to find out if anyone had conducted a recce outside his house and would be able to anticipate future attacks. They would also carefully monitor the visitors including the police and would plan out their future moves,” the source added.
In the meantime, the cops are still grappling with various issues regarding the modernisation of the police force. It has been over a year since the police had made plans to come up with a social media monitoring cell but so far, not a single meeting has been conducted with the prospective shareholders. A source close to the cyber cell unit of Delhi Police told this paper: “Several stakeholders who work in the field of surveillance were supposed to be identified and they were supposed to meet and decide on which organisation was perfect for the task. Since June, not one meeting has taken place. Several software are supposed to be bought and we wanted to revamp the CCTV monitoring to include GPS tracking but the police are not taking this seriously.”
The fact that the Delhi Police have to still rely on manual surveillance means that the gangsters stay one step ahead. In a recent development, the gangsters from Outer Delhi have now started to employ lowerlevel recruits from Western Uttar Pradesh due to technical reasons. “After committing two – three crimes, the younger recruits had to go underground. Now there are recruits from Delhi who are tech savvy and could not digest being constantly on the run, cut-off from social media and would eventually resurface. But now they have employed people from West UP, as those recruits have no interest in social media,” said a senior police official.