Bidari gets tough on info leaks

Adding teeth to this frustration, Bidari gave a public dressing down to a police inspector and a sub-inspector.

A section of the media had on Thursday reported that the main accused in the case was James alias Vincent, a gym instructor who knew and had worked earlier with Payal’s husband.

Bidari said leaking information amounts to misconduct on the part of the officers. “We are yet to complete the formalities and before we could collect evidences, the investigation team revealed vital details to a section of the media. Now, I have called for an investigation into the leakage,” he said.

He assured that the unethical practice inside the department will not go unpunished. “We will take stern action against the officers and administer the strongest medicine. There is no doubt that some officers are media savvy and get hyper, that too when a case draws media trial.”

Eagerness amongst department insiders starting from the constabulary to the senior officers to hit the headlines remained an apparent source of headache for the top officials.

 “Leakages not only hamper investigation but also leave chinks in paper works. The accused gets an upper hand to work through his way with regard to the court matters. If this trend continues, the cases we deal with may not hold water in the court of law and conviction rate would surely hit rock bottom,”  a department official told Deccan Herald.

Involvement by a few police officers in the production of crime-based television programmes has remained a source of frustration for the commissionerate in recent times. This obviously pushes professional interest to the back seat, the official added.

Interestingly, Joint commissioner (crime) Alok Kumar is well aware of the turn of events and also met a host of people during his tenure as DCP (South).

“Henceforth, only the Commissioner of Police, Joint-Commissioner of Police, Additional Commissioners of Police and DCPs will comment on major issues and not subordinate officers,” Bidari added.

When asked to confirm the news on Payal Surekha’s killer, the commissioner said: “I feel proud to say that the Bangalore police have cracked the case.”

“There are definite leads in the case. I had promised we could crack the case within 48 hours. We kept our promise, but cannot give out the details now as the suspect or suspects have fled to different parts of the country. We are unable to divulge further details as we are yet to tie the loose ends, before coming to conclusions.”

The Commissioner then read out the names of police staff who had done ‘excellent work’ in property recovery and arrests. However, names of J P Nagar police inspector S K Umesh and police constable Mahadev, who handled the Payal murder case, weren’t found in the list.

Asked if the two policemen would face disciplinary action, the Commissioner gave a vague reply. “I read out all the names. I might have omitted some names as I did not see them properly since I was not wearing my glasses,” he quipped.