Police – the best script writers

By T Kannamala

 Author `News Chase’ – a novel on the thrills, frills & perils of news gathering

I have stopped watching movies a long time ago, because I had been exposed to more hilarious and convincing real life stories during my days as a crime reporter. So I was not surprised when I read two news reports today, Feb 20, 2020. First, the UP chief minister declared that the Anti-CAA protesters had suffered bullet injuries when some among themselves opened fire. (Police have methods to ensure that injury is not caused by bullets from their licensed weapons). Next the Kerala police have produced 350 fake bullets, after the CAG report said as many bullets and several rifles were found missing during the audit.

Back to an old police story where one of my police contacts in Chennai Manali station had produced a more incredible feat, after the mega fire in the Madras Refineries Limited (MRL) in the early 1980s.

During the fire, a large number of LPG filled cylinders flew over the protected area and landed in the vicinity. Police hauled them all to the station. In those days, if one had an LPG cylinder, the refill was supplied on demand. All VIPs with police contacts wanted the Manali police to arrange their LPG connection. The MRL came under its jurisdiction. But MRL never obliged. So the Manali police made the best use of the cylinders recovered.Soon, all the cylinders without damage were dispatched to the VIPs in the station ‘waiting list.’

Meanwhile, the MRL gave a complaint that large number of cylinders were missing and requested the police to return the Cylinders recovered to check their fire and blast resistance capability. The security guys had a newspaper photograph of large number of cylinders in the station yard.

As the situation was likely to turn in to a scandal, the police agreed to `return’ all the recovered cylinders. The station in charge assured that a further search would be organised in the neighbourhood for more cylinder.

The police did make inquiries and found that a factory in Gummudipoondi industrial area was supplying cylinders to the MRL. Through a decoy, the police placed an order for 25 LPG cylinders at minimum cost. Within a week, about 40 cylinders were handed over to MRL under proper record.

The MRL promptly sent a letter to the police which said 25 cylinders did not belong to them. They found out that they were newly made with lesser gauge metal, and insisted on for their cylinders.

Police knew they were trapped. They went on the offensive. Based on the letter from the MRL, they prepared a report to the district police chief. Among other things, it mentioned that `some truck operators made several trips carrying LPG loads from MRL using same trip sheets. Despite cases were registered against them, the practice continued. The MRL letter said some of the cylinders recovered after the blasts were sub-standard. This is a cause of concern, and quality of cylinders must be periodically checked. There are also reports that oil drums are punctured, and the contents allowed to flow into a drain with outlet to an uninhabited neighbourhood. The oil flowing on the top of the drain water is collected and sold by anti-social elements. A carelessly thrown lighted cigarette butt/match stick also can cause fires. So all these matters may be taken up with the Union Government, and a thorough inquiry ordered by the CBI’, letter to the police chief said.

“Then what happened?” I asked my police contact.

“We tore off the original of this report, and gave a copy to the MRL. Within minutes, a senior security person from the MRL rushed to the police station and requested that there was no need to follow up the blast case, and the entire matter might be treated as `dropped’. We graciously accepted their request and said all was well that ended well.

Eom/Feb.20, 2020