Wit in time

Illustration/Uday Mohite

On Monday, the country woke up to the horrific news of Sulochana Seth, CEO of The Mindful AI lab, being arrested for killing her four-year-old son. Seth allegedly drugged and smothered him in a service apartment in Goa and was on her way to Karnataka in a taxi - the body stuffed into a duffel bag in the boot - when she
was intercepted.

While the ghastly and brutal nature of the crime has attracted eyeballs, Seth's arrest is a textbook example of how quick thinking can be the backbone of crime detection, despite investigation and technology progressing manifold.

In this case, as soon as things got fishy, the Goa police contacted Seth's cab driver and apprised him of the situation, even as she sat in the backseat. Rayjohn D'souza coolly shared his live location with the cops and drove straight to Aimangala police station in Karnataka to hand Seth over.

It was the Goa Police's quick thinking and D'souza's presence of mind that snapped up murderer and evidence within a few hours. Law enforcement officials across the country agree that had Seth managed to get away, the case would have turned into a nightmare. The possibilities were endless; she could have disposed of the body and the crime may have come to light much later, and taken a flight out of the country before her passport could be red flagged. As any cop worth his salt would agree, the first 48 hours of any investigation are crucial.

Experienced investigators say this human ingenuity has fast tracked many an investigation. Like the 1992 case of Chandrakant Lotia who promised marriage to scores of women, and financially cheated and sexually exploited them. Dhanraj Vanjari, who retired in 2013 as Assistant Commissioner of Police, says, "There was no Internet back then. Then 52 years old, Lotia would place advertisements in newspapers and receive responses in a post box. He would woo these women, win their trust, take them to five-star hotels and, after intimacy, lead them on so that they would want to spend money on him or even ‘lend' him large amounts. Then, he would cook up a story about having to go abroad urgently and disappear."

At the time, Vanjari was an inspector with the General Branch of the Economic Offences Wing, now called the Bank Fraud and General Cheating unit. He deputed a constable in plain clothes to watch the PO Box near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, and after several days, when a smartly dressed man turned up to collect letters, the cop approached him. When asked to accompany him, Lohia was affronted.

"Lotia put on the airs of a privileged, well-heeled person and the constable became a bit unsure," says Vanjari. "However, he quickly realised that two could play the game. He told a security guard to run and alert me at my office 15 minutes away, and began acting outraged himself. Loudly, he started saying how he was only doing his job and soon, passersby encircled them and asked Lotia why he was so reluctant to cooperate with the police. Lotia was unable to get away before we got there."

Fast forward to July 2018, when 14-year-old Sandeep Singh ran away from Ghaziabad to Mumbai to make it big. He called his mother to tell her that he was fine and that she should not look for him. A civilian expert tracked the location of the phone to Mumbai, and Sandeep's distraught mother sought help from the Mumbai Crime Branch.

"The phone was shown to be near the McDonald's opposite Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus," says an officer who was part of the team. "We rushed to the location and fanned out - seven of us - scouring every inch of the area, including a cinema hall, but found no sign of Sandeep." Though technology was on their side, scanning CCTV cameras would have taken time, and mobile location mapping wasn't yielding results.

It was time to get creative.

The only way was to call the number and pay attention to the background noises to figure out the location. However, if Sandeep had been kidnapped, this could alert his kidnapper and make matters worse.

"A female officer had an idea: She dialled the number, posed as a cellular network provider, and offered a free SIM card," says the officer. "As they bantered, the background noises let us know he was on a street, but stationary."

The only such person around was a pavement dweller right outside McDonald's. He confirmed Sandeep had borrowed his phone to make a call in the wee hours. Recognising him as a runaway, he had given Sandeep some money and sent him to a friend's place in Govandi. As the cops raced to Govandi, fear gripped their hearts as a background check showed his new friend had a criminal record. They screeched to a halt outside his door just as Sandeep was leaving, took him into custody, fed him, got him a video call with his relieved mother, and sent him back home after a good scolding.