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Delhi becomes headquarters of Crime Inc

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Six murders in a single day -- victims include a freelance journalist, and the girlfriend of Dawood Ibrahim's alleged henchman Romesh Sharma -- in various parts of the national capital on March 19 sent shockwaves and made people wonder if Delhi was fast becoming the crime capital of India.

The series of murders come on the heels of some of the most gruesome crimes the capital has witnessed in the recent past. While Kunjum Buddhiraja's murder seems to be the handiwork of Romesh Sharma's ex-associates, what has rattled the police and the administration is the murderous attacks on journalists.

Anil Rattan is the fifth journalist to be murdered in less then two years in Delhi, and the third to lose his life in the first three months of 1999. While Shivani Jajodia of New Delhi Television was killed by a stalker at her Vasant Kunj residence in November 1977, Sudha Gupta, news reader with All India Radio was murdered at her residence in Mandir Marg in November 1998.

Shivani Bhatnagar's body was found at her residence in Trans Yamuna area in January this year. The principal correspondent of Indian Express was on maternity leave when she was brutally murdered.

Hardly had the media recovered from that shock when Irfan Hussain, senior cartoonist with Outlook magazine was murdered, his body dumped near Gazipur in Trans Yamuna area.

Shivani was an investigative journalist who could have been working on some sensitive story. Irfan, it is claimed, had annoyed Shiv Sainiks with his none-too flattering caricatures of party chief Bal Thackeray. But what surprised media-watchers was the murder of Anil Rattan.

The 42-year-old freelance, a former Delhi champion in bridge, was hardly the kind who would pick up a quarrel with anyone. A loner by nature, Rattan took life in his stride and hardly ever communicated with either his neighbours or his relatives

In a written reply, Home Minister L K Advani, had admitted in the Rajya Sabha on March 10, 1999, that Delhi's crime record was worse than that of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras together.

"There were 649 murders in the capital in 1998 as compared to 351 in Bombay, 80 in Calcutta and 36 in Madras," the home minister had said.

"I agree that the crime situation in Delhi has suddenly aggravated in the last couple of years but the statistics provided by other cities is ridiculous. While we register all the cases that occur, it is possible that the other cities with who we were compared may not have registered even 20 per cent of the cases which might have actually taken place," said a senior Delhi police officer in reaction.

"The population of Delhi has grown almost by 2.5 million in the last ten years or so, whereas the strength of the Delhi police has remained almost static. Mind you, I am not putting forward any excuse for the sudden jump in the crime graph, I am only explaining the administrative difficulties. A sizeable number of our men are either busy in VVIP duties or protecting the important people under threat. Law and order is bound to suffer," added another officer, indignantly refusing to name himself.

According to Amod Kanth, who is heading the special investigating team constituted by the Lt Governor of Delhi Vijay Kapur to investigate the Irfan murder case, there is no laxity on the part of the Delhi police in any investigation, leave alone an important case like Irfan Hussain. "The problem is that whenever a media-man is under attack, the whole media reacts. May I tell you that in the Irfan case I had been in touch with his wife on a daily basis and yet we are accused of not taking calls from certain individuals. Commissioner V N Singh had spoken to me a number of times and he was being briefed on an hour to hour basis. Sometimes you don't get a breakthrough early. But we are on the job," he says.

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