NEW DELHI: The Radu case exposed the inefficiency of the city police. It brought only disgrace to them. At every stage they had failed. When Radu actually reached the gate of his residence, the policemen posted there failed to recognize him, “I am Radu. I was kidnapped by militants and have just been released,” he introduced himself. The baffled policemen looked at each other in disbelief. One of them asked him to produce his identity card. He did it and was then allowed in. One cannot blame them. They had not been supplied with Radus photograph. Had the militants dropped him at a border check post, Radu would have walked across without being detected. Some senior officers had suggested a photograph of Radu be given to the police manning the border check posts. But it was never done.
During the days of Radus captivity in Delhi, the police commissioner, Arun Bhagat, had claimed his men were efficiently conducting house-to-house searches. But, the militants not only kept Radu in flats at two places in south Delhi, they also shifted him in a Maruti Gypsy without tinted glass.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 6, 1991
