The Mumbai police have decided to review unsolved murder cases involving senior citizens in the city. This decision follows a special report in the Hindustan Times on the large number of unsolved murder cases involving seniors — 60 out of 175 between 1996 and February 19, 2008.
K L Prasad, joint commissioner of police (law and order), on Monday, called a meeting of all five regional additional commissioners police and asked that they review such unsolved cases in their jurisdiction.
“They have been asked to submit reports to me within a week,” Prasad said. He hopes the exercise will determine what was lacking in the investigation. “If required, we will not hesitate to reopen the closed cases.”
Meanwhile, police stations have been asked to prepare the list of domestic helps, servants and even milkmen who go into housing societies in their jurisdiction. “Earlier, housing societies had to furnish such details but now the police will visit buildings and prepare the list,” Prasad stated.
This decision was taken as many murders involve servants, drivers, watchmen or those who frequent the societies, said Prasad. “We want to check if they have criminal records and keep tabs.”
The police will also launch a drive to register senior citizens. “We already have a database of 3,600 senior citizens; we will make a fresh appeal for registration,” revealed the police officer.
While the detection rate in murder cases, underworld-related killings, rapes and molestation was 80-90 per cent, detection rate in senior citizen murder cases was only 55-60 per cent.
By Debasish Panigrahi, Hindustan Times
© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times
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Seniors World Chronicle adds:Already, Mumbai Police has a HelpLine for Seniors
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