Police set up 'cold cases' cell

After facing all-round criticism for a decline in their detection rate for both heinous and non-heinous cases, the Delhi Police have now pulled up their socks to re-investigate pending cases and have set up a dedicated "cold cases cell (C3)" in all 11 districts and in the crime branch.

After facing all-round criticism for a decline in their detection rate for both heinous and non-heinous cases, the Delhi Police have now pulled up their socks to re-investigate pending cases and have set up a dedicated "cold cases cell (C3)" in all 11 districts and in the crime branch.

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The initiative has been taken by Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar keeping in view the fact that several high-profile cases remained unsolved in previous years, despite extensive effort of the investigating officers.

This dedicated investigation cell is working under the overall supervision of the concerned district DCP. Assistant commissioner of police (operations or district investigation units) have been made the in-charge of the cell.

After the creation of the C3, senior police officers believe that several unsolved and sensational murder cases will achieve breakthroughs.

The list of these cases include the Shakarpur double murder case in which a senior citizen couple was killed, the triple murder in Rohini, where a young girl and her parents were found murdered at their house and the Sarojini Bartwal murder case of Mayur Vihar.

The success of this initiative, a senior police officer said, can be gauged by the fact that as many as five old unsolved cases of different districts have been worked out by their C3 teams. These cases include blind murder cases, which were reported as many as five years ago and put in the list of untraced or unsolved cases.

One such case was that of a 25-year-old woman, whose mutilated body was found in a jute sack dumped in outer Delhi area. The case was not cracked and was eventually declared a blind murder case.

"A fresh investigation revealed the word 'Haridwar' written on the jute sack. The family members of the missing woman were contacted and they disclosed the killer could have been her husband. It has now been established that he murdered the woman and later dumped her body in outer Delhi." said BS Jaiswal, DCP (outer).

The police are looking for her husband, he added.