The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Utility of mobile phones in detection of crime

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 06, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Utility of mobile phones in detection of crime

Mobile phones have not only made communication easy, but also improved crime detection rate, writes K.V. Subramanya

CRIME AND investigation of it are a battle of wits between the criminals and investigators.

While criminals take care not to leave behind any clues that can lead the police to them, investigators always look for such leads.

Of late, the Bangalore police have been able to crack several major cases on the clues they were able to obtain merely on the basis of mobile phone call details.

The advent of mobile phones has thus not only made communication easy, but also improved crime detection rate.

The latest of such cases is the rescue of Gautham Krishna (8), who was kidnapped from the city on April 27 and held captive in Gwalior. According to the police, a call made by Gautham to his father from the kidnappers' mobile phone provided the major clue to the investigators in apprehending the accused.

In another case, the Kamakshipalya police recently solved the mysterious murder of a businessman, Adishekar, who had gone missing since December.

Call details

It was the call details of Adishekar's mobile phone, which was being used by the accused that led to his arrest.

Some time ago, Manjunath alias Raju (18), who had allegedly murdered Kaldevi Chandramani (78) in Sindhi Colony in Fraser Town police station limits, was traced solely on the basis of the calls he had made from his mobile phone.

The clueless police, who by chance got the mobile phone number of Manjunath, found that he had made several calls to a particular number at Muddenahalli in Arakalgud taluk of Hassan district.

A police team that went to Muddenahalli gathered information about Manjunath and arrested him from Saligrama in K.R. Nagar taluk.

The sensational murder of realtor Subbaraju, who was shot dead at his office on Seshadripuram Main Road in Vyalikaval police station limits in January 2000, was also solved on the basis of the call details of a mobile phone.

The two sharpshooters from Mumbai who allegedly shot Subbaraju inadvertently dropped their mobile phone while escaping in an autorickshaw.

It was the details of calls made from and to the mobile phone that gave the clue to the police that the Mumbai underworld had a role in the realtor's killing.

Innocents troubled

On the other hand, there have also been instances wherein innocent people were put to inconvenience as the police wrongly suspected them on the basis of mobile call details.

For instance, the police seized a mobile phone from a militant, Imam Ali, who along with his five accomplices, was shot dead in an encounter at M.S. Ramaiah Nagar a few years ago.

One of the numbers to which some calls were made from the seized phone was that of a staunch RSS and BJP leader from Gulbarga. The police were shocked to find a "link" between the militant and the BJP leader.

However, investigations revealed that the BJP leader's son had surrendered his SIM card to the mobile service provider and later Ali had taken the same number.

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