The police department is often portrayed in films as inefficient, corrupt and incapable of solving the cases. It may not always be true, but how it has failed to solve the “murder” of one of their own -- an inspector of police -- on the road in Bangalore a little over a year ago, shows the police in poor light.

Cubbon Park traffic inspector N Arun Kumar was run over and killed by a black Scorpio near Cubbon road junction on March 18, 2006. On that fateful night, he along with his colleagues was checking vehicles for drunken driving.

The temporary barricades were in place and the men-in-khaki asked the driver to show the vehicle papers. The man behind the Scorpio wheel, apparently drunk, in a bid to escape rammed into Arun Kumar and sped away. The inspector was killed on the spot.

Despite a sub-inspector, who was present, filing a complaint and a host of other constables and public signing as witnesses, the culprit is yet to be traced.

Two youths happened to be just behind the killer vehicle at the check point. They came forward to identify the jeep. One of them, a Journalism student,  gave a complete description of the jeep, its registration number (KA-04-MC-5055) and about a lady sitting next to the driver.

Since then, the police have screened most of the Scorpios in the State and also contacted their counterparts in the neighbouring states, but have not met with any success.

Adding insult to injury, Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, who promised to give Arun Kumar's son Prashant a government job, in the first flush of media uproar, has failed to keep up the promise. Arun’s wife Nagamani and Prashant were seen at many janata darshans since then.

Many officers in the department were hoping that within the first death anniversary of Arun Kumar, Prashant would be handed a  letter of job offer but it has not materialised so far.

Mournful silence still persists in Nagamani’s house.