The crash of the IAF Mi-17V5 helicopter carrying the Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Bipin Rawat, with his wife, Defence Assistant, commandos and IAF personnel near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on December 8 brings up, once again, the question of safety of flying by rotorcraft. At least five people had...
A few months ago, a newspaper cutting of a senior police official calling the public to participate in the investigation of unsolved cases went viral. The social media post said that there are 15 unsolved murder cases and three cases of murder for gain in the central zone of Tamil Nadu. The...
English jurist William Blackstone who has penned commentaries on English laws has said in his book, "It is better that ten guilty escape than one innocent suffer". For ages, our society has followed the same principle as a yardstick for delivering justice. The Madras High Court recalled the...
Jai Bhim film has shed light once again on police brutality. At the core of what is wrong in our system is the power that the police have to arrest people without a warrant from a judicial magistrate. The power of arrest is used arbitrarily, whimsically and capriciously, and sometimes...
The evidence trail left in recent burglaries in Coimbatore have made police suspect that the economic downturn due to pandemic is feeding crime. Missteps such as the perpetrators not covering their faces and allowing themselves to be seen on CCTV cameras are signs that amateurs were involved,...
Complaints against the police often come in two instances. During the investigation of a crime, allegations against the police investigation officer that he is moving the process in favour of the accused are often made by the complainant. Charges against the official that he or she is creating...
Last month seven children escaped from the Government Juvenile Home in Chennai. When the guard dozed off for a short while early in the morning, these children, who were lodged in the reception centre of the home, managed to flee from the home. Among these seven, one belonged to Tamil Nadu...
In its brutality, sickness of intent, execution, and the profile of the victim and the murderer, the two murders are not very dissimilar. The reaction to Swathi’s murder in June, 2016, was immediate and visceral. It seemed to strike a stronger chord among people. But it is quite likely Swetha’s...
There was a time when a “rowdy squad” was formed as a separate force within Tamil Nadu police and was directly supervised by district SPs and commissioners. Not only in rowdy-related cases, this force helped to solve heinous crimes such as murders and arrest the accused in those cases. A...
In September of 2002, the then Chennai commissioner of police K Vijayakumar got a letter by post. A resident of Chennai had written to him about her family problems. She had said that her auto driver husband spent nearly all his earnings buying lottery tickets. He gave little for family...
