‘Police going easy on Kurla rape cases’

Vinod Singh, 28, a resident of Haryana, is back in the Thakkarbappa Nagar area of Nehru Nagar in Kurla, where he works as a labourer in a shoe factory. He had fled the city about seven months ago, along with hundreds of others like him in order to escape police strictness.

The police cracked down on people during the investigations of the serial rape and murder cases of minor girls in Nehru Nagar.   
The police had made it compulsory for shoe-making unit owners to ask for the labourers’ bio-data before hiring them.

They were randomly picked up and questioned by the police for long hours. 

“However, after the initial spark shown, the investigation has died down. Now the things are as they used to be earlier before the cases surfaced,” said Sharad Parmar, proprietor of one of the units.

“The plus side of it is that the industry has started prospering again.” 

The relaxation in police investigation has disappointed the locals. “Earlier, the cops would patrol the area all the time. But it’s not the case anymore,” said Amjad Shahid Khan.

Fatima Khatoon, another local, alleges that the cops have even taken away many closed-circuit cameras installed in the lanes and bylanes of the slums in Nehru Nagar. “It seems the cops were doing it under pressure. They have stopped taking interest in the case,” said Khatoon.

However, deputy commissioner of police Dilip Sawant denied that there is any slackness in the investigation. “Our investigation is as intense as it was before,” said Sawant.