Cops crippled by bail for habitual offenders

BANGALORE: Recently, the city police arrested criminal Farooq Ahmed and sent him to jail. On Tuesday, city police realized that he has walked out on bail. Now, they're desperately searching for him as there are over 40 warrants pending against him.
Police are confident of nabbing him soon. But, it's going to be a long haul by the time they get their hands on four South Americans who jumped bail and vanished.
These four were part of a five-member gang, the accused in the heist on March 22 at Pride Hotel on Richmond road in which gold jewellery worth over Rs 1.5 crore was looted.The four thieves applied for bail in the city court and their advocate argued that they were residents of the city and would not go missing, if granted bail. After getting bail, they're absconding now.
"They were in India on fake passports and the courts should have taken police objections. Now, they will go out using other fake passports. There are many cases in which even habitual offenders get bail easily. We plan to bring these to the notice of the high court so that police objections are taken before granting bail,'' said city police commissioner Shankar Bidari.
The police are weighing the options between writing a detailed letter to the high court registrar. Meanwhile, city police opened a channel with the prisons authorities to get a regular list of cases that come up for hearing.
Joint commissioner of police (Crime) Alok Kumar said bail granted in some cases was creating administrative problems for both police and courts. "Once habitual offenders get bail, they resume their old activities and we have to find them. Most jump bail and don't attend the hearings and warrants are issued against them. The number of cases pile up which is burden for both police and court.''
"In some cases, we have arrested persons for murder. They get bail even before the identification parade is done and we're helpless in investigation,'' Alok Kumar added.