Bangalore Cottonpet Murders: Unanswered Questions

The police and the media did appreciable work considering the resources available to them, but left few queries hanging

By Francis Adams

The deceased couple and their daughter.
Pic courtesy Deccan Herald.

The twin murder of the owner-couple of the Mahalaxmi Pure Veg restaurant in Cottonpet, Bangalore on August 1 has left the people of Bangalore dejected and concerned over the growing crime rate in their city, especially those involving brutal murders.
 Their strong emotion could be gauged from the comments left by readers after reading the gruesome killing of the couple  Pawan Kumar Maheshwari alias Sharma and his wife Bhabhita Devi Sharama. Their kindergarten-going daughter miraculously survived the ordeal to clue-in the police about the culprit, whom she referred to as "Bhaiyya", a term used affectionately by most north Indians.
 Both, the police and the media, print and television seem to have done a commendable job in assimilating facts after what they saw and found at the scene of crime. For example, the police did an exemplary job by first rushing the murdered couple's child, Priya, to the hospital and later when she regained consciousness, getting her to identify the suspect, Karthik.
  The media on its part, carried out its own investigation appreciably, led by The Times of India, which reported that the culprit frequently visited a neighbouring paan-shop to buy "teen-sau-zarda-maava" a type of tobacco and betelnut concoction that is an addiction among people in most parts of India. Such leads are crucial to any crime investigation.
 The Times of India, along with Deccan Herald and the DNA showed similarity in reporting the name of the deceased Pawan Sharma, whom many other publications identified by the name Pankaj.
  However, despite all the hard and smart work put on display, collectively, by the media and the police, they left few questions unanswered.
  It is yet to be understood or known why didin't the media or the police pursue further after the sniffer dog led the police up to the railway station before losing trail. The question left hanging is: If, according to
the police, the murder was committed in the early hours of August 1, and considering the culprit escaped toward the Bangalore Railway Station, was there an immediate train available for him to leave for Assam, his native place. Or was there any other train leaving Bangalore that he could have hopped on to escape?
 If so, the railway station has cctv cameras installed that might provide a lead in identifying the suspect killer.
 Considering the killer, who was reportedly hired only a week ago by Pawan Mishra and his wife as a help, is from Assam, it is very likely that he does not speak Kannada, the native language in Bangalore. So if he did hire an autorickshaw to escape to another destination within the city, autodrivers who regularly ply from that spot near the Railway Station could be a big help in knowing in which direction the killer fled. Whether
this was looked into or explored isn't known.
 Even if you assume that the killer did speak Kannada, the paan shopowner from whom the killer bought "teen-sau-zarda-maava" regularly would be able to ascertain the fact.
  The other intriguing aspect is reports about the customer who was the first to notice the murdered couple when he pulled up the shutter of the restaurant and raised an alarm. The Times of India and Deccan Herald have even named this customer as Rakesh and have narrated a first-person account of what he saw. The police have claimed that this customer could be privy to information about the killer on the premise that Pawan Sharma might have discussed the newly hired Assamese help with him since he was a regular customer and had been visiting the restaurant over the past one month.
 The police, however, have also claimed that this customer could not be reached because he could be scared and could have shied away from the scene. Well, if this customer identified himself to the reporters and
indicated to them the hotel he was lodging at, the police can locate him, reach him by gaining access to the guest registry book at the hotel. Isn't it?
 This customer could also be traced and asked to provide description about the killer for police sketch artists to draw out a facial composite.
  Meanwhile, one of the channels had even reported that the police did lay its hand on the killer's photograph. This report is yet to be verified.
   As it stands now, the case will rely on the skills of the forensic experts, although the police has set up two teams who are continually working on resolving the case.
  According to the Truth Labs, India’s first independent Forensic Science Lab "the importance of Forensic Science is yet to catch on in the country. Considering that over three million cases are pending in just the Indian High courts, any attempt that facilitates the speedy disbursal of justice is more than welcome."
 Truth Labs, which claims to be the comprehensive one-stop forensic service facility in India, enjoys a partnership with various government organizations including the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), Home Affairs, Govt. of India, the CCMB, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Govt. of India and bodies such as the University of Hyderabad and the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.
  Truth Labs says that India has 25 state and four central government forensic science laboratories. However, it says, individuals cannot seek help from these forensic science laboratories for resolution. They are mandated to approach the police in criminal cases or courts in civil cases.
  The government forensic laboratories, collectively, have about 5,000 forensic experts including medical doctors. Of them 90 are handwriting experts, 900 fingerprint experts, nine lie-detector experts, 25 DNA experts, 300 medico-legal experts, eight failure analysis experts and 3,000 forensic scientists in other specialities.
  However, the Labs says that "there is a huge gap between the forensic facilities available and the demand for such services to handle cases promptly and efficiently."
  According to the government's Central Forensic Science Laboratory, (CBI) -- established in 1968 in New Delhi as a scientific department to provide scientific support and services to the investigation of crime -- it is working on upgrading its labs up to the international benchmark. "Procurement of new technology for the division namely (1) Brain Finger printing (2) Voice Stress Analysis (3) Toxicology (4) Analog/Digital Audio/Video analysis is in process. Initiatives have been taken for A Quality management system, Technical upgradations, Calibration Systems, etc," the CFSL has said on its web site.
 "A proposal under 11th Five Year Plan has been mooted by the CFSL (CBI) to establish Scientific Aids Units (SAUs) in two metropolitan cities i.e. Kolkata and Mumbai and to strengthen the existing SAU at Chennai."
  Meanwhile, the Bangalore police has taken the Chinese proverb "Society sets up the crime, the citizen commits it" seriously and are hoping all residents in the city, especially senior citizens and businesspersons understand the logic. The police has rightly appealed to all residents to keep them in the loop before hiring and new domestic help so that the domestic help's identity is maintained with the police and the employer.