Reporter’s diary: When grateful cops felt like saluting CCTV cameras

When she wakes up, she finds herself amid bushes in a neighbouring state. When the police receive complaints like this, it usually means sleepless nights for them to crack the case. And in some cases, during investigation, officers find out that the allegations were false. In this case, however, the city police managed to crack the case within six hours, thanks to the CCTV cameras installed in the locality.

The footage showed the complainant boarding an auto-rickshaw and alighting at an MRTS station. When the police confronted the complainant with the footage, she admitted that she filed the complaint to take revenge on her friend who failed to keep a promise. Investigation revealed that the complainant — a bank employee — was in a relationship with a man. Since her family opposed it, citing incompatibile horoscopes, she decided to consult an astrologer suggested by her friend to verify her parents’ claims. While she travelled all the way to another city to meet the astrologer, her friend who promised to take her to the astrologer did not show up. Frustrated, the woman returned to the city and lodged a kidnapping complaint.

Investigating officers said that had it not been for the CCTV cameras, they would have had been too frustrated. They were so overwhelmed with how easily they solved the case, that one officer said he “felt like saluting the cameras for making our jobs easier”.