Soumya's murder raises fresh questions about law and order in capital
NEW DELHI: The murder of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan in the early hours of Tuesday has raised fresh questions about law and order in the national capital and its suburbs, despite Delhi having one of the largest metropolitan police forces in the world. The young journalists murder less than half-a-km from the local police station, is the latest in a series of incidents that have startled the capital.
Last week, the CEO of an American software firm was dragged out of his car and badly beaten up in a late-evening abduction attempt in Noida. A few days before that, another CEO was hammered to death because police failed to provide him security despite threats from retrenched employees.
Delhi has always had a high crime rate, but going by the events of the last one month, the security preparedness is appaling. Soumya, a journalist with Headlines Today, was shot dead while she was driving back to her Vasant Kunj home in southwest Delhi.
More than 48 hours after the incident, police are yet to make any breakthrough. What is even more shocking is that almost immediately after the incident, the cops had dubbed Vishwanathan's death a case of fatal road accident as her Maruti Zen car was found rammed into the central verge of the road.
It was only when doctors recovered a bullet from her head in the post mortem that the cops realised she had been shot dead. This time lapse obviously helped the killers get away.
Vishwanathan's murder is a grim reminder of how unsafe the national capital is and how hollow the police claims of extensive night patrolling are.
At about 2 am on September 11, two bikers were mowed down by a BMW car in South Delhi and the prime accused in the case managed to evade arrest.
The heightened security alert following the September 13 (Connaught Place) and 27 (Mehrauli) terror strikes and owing to the festive season, is obviously missing. Soumya's murder, which happened in one of the posh areas of the city, proves that the cops were not patrolling the area.
What is also baffling is the fact that gunshots were also found on the number plate of Vishwanathan's car and the cops suspect that her assailants may have chased her for some distance. If gunshots were being fired in the dead of the night, why did the beat constables not react in time?
