Keeping vigil over the city

Keeping vigil over the city

The Hindu

Police personnel on night patrol encounter a different facet of the city

BANGALORE: Police personnel on night patrol encounter a facet of the city not seen during the day.

The quiet roads and bylanes can spring nasty surprises, as this reporter accompanying a patrol party found out.

It is midnight and the location Ulsoor Police Station. The patrol is ready to start when a wireless message from Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) P. Muniswamy summons the constables to a bar on Sai Baba Mandir Road in Cambridge Layout. The DCP had heard screams from that place.

He finds out that two persons are being beaten up. Some run away on seeing the police, while others are trapped in the bar. The DCP has managed to rescue the two. He then calls for reinforcements.

One man is bleeding from a cut on his forehead and the other is badly bruised. The police manage to arrest those in the bar. He instructs the police to take action against the bar which has operated beyond the stipulated time.

The convoy with the DCP in the lead moves towards Fraser Town. On the way, the headlights of a parked car attract attention. The convoy stops. The driver of the car is questioned. A woman is with him. The man says he is a resident of the apartment nearby. The police relax. "This sends a message to anti-social elements that the police are alert," Mr. Muniswamy says.

A few hundred metres away, a man on a motorcycle attracts the patrol party's attention. The crime squad stops him and checks his documents. He is in the clear.

A young boy picked up from Sultanpalya is questioned. "My father abandoned me," says the boy. The Station House Officer feels there is something fishy. The boy will be subjected to more questioning in the morning.

The police patrol then moves on to the Outer Ring Road where tea stalls are still open. The police stop, look and move away. Nothing suspicious. Some distance away, eight people are sheltering from the drizzle under a plastic sheet. They work in a garment factory and have finished work. They need to reach Laggere. The officer asks another police vehicle to ferry them home.

The patrol enters Peenya Industrial area and finds a man at a bus stop, ducking down when the headlights approach. The man says he is from Tamil Nadu abandoned by his family. The crime squad picks him up to be questioned later.