Shocking murder in Chennai
The recent murder of 24-year-old Swati, an Infosys techie from Chennai, has shocked the city and everyone in India. It has raised important questions about the effectiveness of security in the state. Swati was cold-bloodedly murdered by a man who thrashed her with a sickle he was carrying. The incident took place early in the morning of June 24 at the Nungambakkam railway station. There was not a single CCTV camera in the station. The police have taken their lead after finding another footage from a CCTV camera installed in a nearby shop. The station was bereft of any CCTV cameras and the police had to take help from another camera footage outside the station premises. The incident certainly draws focus on how the state deviates from just a simple security measure.
The same week also saw the murder of four other women elsewhere in the city. Strangely four lawyers were also murdered before these crimes in separate incidents. According to media reports, the city witnessed 13 murders last month. All these reports suggest that Tamil Nadu has simply not able to reign in on the killers. Four days have gone after Swati’s death. Yet the murderer has not been captured nor identified correctly.
Why do we wait till disaster strikes?
When the administration depends on CCTV footage from nearby shops even as the railway station lacks a single camera shows the lack of preparedness of the administration for dealing with heinous crimes. Governments and politicians do not think twice to beef up and spend lakhs of rupees on their own security, but the common citizen’s security is always a distant second priority and more so in the case of women.
