Police chief issues guidelines on investigating fatal accidents

Remember the Utsav Bhasin case last month, where the 19-year-old reportedly abandoned his BMW car at Lajpat Nagar after hitting two motorcyclists, one of whom died later?
As police searched for Bhasin across the city, the BMW, that held important forensic evidence, remained parked on roadside for nearly 24 hours after the accident.
“Much of the evidence was lost in those 24 hours,” admitted a police officer handling the case.
With such shoddy investigations into accident cases that often lead to acquittal of accused, Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal has issued a slew of guidelines to be followed by his subordinates while investigating accident cases-both fatal and simple.
More recently, in the Soumya Vishwanathan case, police botched up again.
“There was no Inspector-level officer at the spot. Her car was left unattended. They failed to notice the bullet mark, leading to confusion that she died in an accident. Fingerprint samples were not lifted immediately. First few hours (called the golden hours in police lingo) were lost,” said a south district police officer.
No wonder, the killers of the 25-year-old TV journalist are still at large and even after two weeks of her murder, the police are clueless even about on the motive of the murder.
“It is becoming apparent that the investigation of accident cases are not done in a proper and scientific manner. As a result the accused are acquitted on the basis of benefit of doubt or lack of evidence and in some cases even the courts have passed severe strictures or remarks against the investigating officers. It has been further observed that road accident cases are not given appropriate importance in many police stations,” Dadwal said in a recent order pertaining to investigation of road accidents.
-
Bengaluru's BMTC buses may have to flock to private petrol bunks for fuel
The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, could have to rely on private fuel stations to refuel its fleet of about 6,700 buses as oil companies have instructed retail outlets not to supply diesel in bulk because it is against the rules, news agency PTI reported. A senior BMTC official told PTI buses are refuelled at depots where they have diesel stock for about a week.
-
Pre-monsoon showers cool down Chandigarh
Chandigarh and its adjoining towns of Panchkula and Mohali received the much-awaited pre-monsoon showers on Wednesday morning that brought a significant drop in the mercury and relief from the sweltering heat. According to the India Meteorological Department, rain is forecast with the onset of monsoon by July 1 when the entire region will be covered. In Chandigarh, the night temperature was 28 degrees, a 3.4 degree fall in the past 24 hours.
-
Not aware of ED chargesheet's contents, says Karnataka Cong chief DK Shivakumar
Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar, who is slated to appear before a Delhi court later this week in connection with a money laundering case, on Tuesday said Shivakumar is not aware about the contents of Enforcement Directorate's charge sheet against him and is yet to receive a copy of it. A Delhi court last month summoned him and others in a money laundering case registered against him in 2018.
-
Bengaluru logs 887 Covid cases; health dept says positives include backlog cases
Bengaluru logged 887 of Karnataka's 968 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, compared to 592 (of 617 in the state) the day before. The health department said Tuesday's positives included backlog cases which could not be ported from Indian Council for Medical Research database due to a technical glitch. Data indicated that 337 people were declared to have recovered from Covid in the state, of whom 293 were from Bengaluru.
-
Deserted streets, downed shutters as Udaipur remains on edge | Watch
Streets wore a deserted look and shops remained closed amid eerie calm in Udaipur on Wednesday, the first morning after a man was beheaded for supporting former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who was suspended from the party earlier this month for her controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad.