In law they trust

On July 9, 2004 two security guards who were convicted in the 1998 murder of 82-year-old Dr Jehangir Vajifdar were sentenced to life imprisonment of 20 years by the sessions court, notes a report in the Mid Day of July 13, 2004. Sessions judge R. S. Dave held Ompra­kash alias Prakash Choudhary and Santosh alias Santu Pandey guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 397 (robbery using weapon) and 452 (house trespass) of the Indian Penal Code.

Vajifdar, a resident of Awabai Mansion on Colaba’s Henry Road was found dead on the morning of October 26, 1998. The police suspected the building’s newly appointed watchmen Choudhary and Pandey who were missing from the day of the incident. Within a fortnight Inspector A. S. Rane, who was then attached to the Colaba Police Station and is now with the Crime Branch, with his assistants was able to arrest Pandey and Choudhary. Despite minimal clues at their disposal they nabbed the culprits, recalls Rane. They traced Pandey in Devjikalal village in Pali district, Rajasthan and recovered from him a Rolex watch worth Rs 2,00,000 and other property including foreign currency worth Rs 2,75,000, according to the newspaper report. Choudhary was arrested in Bombay.

In a city where murder of senior citizens living alone continues to be on the increase, Rane’s efforts to nab the culprits resurrects one’s faith in the protectors of the law. In fact to restore the confidence of senior citizens in the police, Inspectors Trimbak Goble and Harish Rathod from the Colaba Police Station have taken the initiative to play samaritans in response to a directive from senior police officials who had asked all police stations to keep a watch on senior citizens to ensure their safety. Whether they need medical help or conveyance assistance, now the senior citizens feel free to approach the police as vouched by different Colaba residents who were quoted in the Mid Day of January 27, 2004. "Earlier going to the cops for help of any kind was the last option. Now they are the first persons we turn to and we haven’t been disappointed even once,” declared senior citizen Behram Khajotia.