Dud eyes in the sky fail to yield clues

Investigating agencies could have got vital information from closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, installed by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), at two of the four blast sites had they not been defunct.

The PMC spent over Rs14 crore for the installation of 70 CCTV cameras across the city in 2007. The Pune police said that they did not have the manpower to monitor the system and asked the PMC to provide it. However, PMC officials said their job was to provide the system and not manpower. In the wake of the controversy, the private firm that provided technical aid backed out.

The PMC had installed the cameras for traffic monitoring and surveillance, of which one was installed at the Bal Gandharva Chowk, where Dayanand Patil was injured in the blast. Another CCTV camera was located on the Jungli Maharaj Road just outside the Dena Bank ATM centre (left), where another explosive was planted in the basket of a bicycle. After the blast, the police tried to get the footage from these cameras, but found them to be non-functional.

Meanwhile, Eknath Khadse, leader of opposition in the assembly, said a comptroller and auditor-general report states that CCTV cameras worth Rs1.25 crore are lying unused in godowns in Pune.