Home-alone elders’ database in works, cops to watch over them

DHNS

Bengaluru, 14 Jun 2016: With back-to-back murders of two home-alone elderly women in the city last month, police have decided to keep a database of senior citizens living alone and watch over them during daily patrols. 

 

The data collection has begun and police personnel are visiting residential localities to enquire about elderly people. But since the exercise is too tedious, they are also making public announcements.

 

An inspector from the eastern police division said, “It is difficult to identify them, so we are making announcements, asking them to visit the police station and provide their details.”

 

Once the database is ready, police personnel from the jurisdictional station will start watching over such people. 

 

P Harishekaran, Additional Commissioner of Police (East), said: “It’s important to ensure the safety of senior citizens, especially women living alone. Police stations have been instructed to collect the data of such people. This will help us provide security to them.” 

 

The officer also stressed the need to ensure security of women from other towns who live alone in flats or independent houses. “We’ll also keep their database and provide them security,” he said. 

 

K S R Charan Reddy, Additional Commissioner of Police (West), said elderly people should also take the lead and keep the local police in the loop, so that they could be watched over. 

 

“We will ask our men on patrol to visit them often and enquire about their well-being,” he told Deccan Herald. 

 

Police are also calling on elderly people to instal CCTV cameras in their homes and outside, if they could afford it. They should keep the police or their neighbours informed whenever labourers or workers visit them for repair or service. Another precautionary measure is to verify the background of domestic helps, Reddy said. 

 

On May 31, Lakshmi Rajam, 67, was murdered at her home at BEML Layout in Rajaraeshwari Nagar, west Bengaluru, reportedly by the son of her deceased husband’s ex-colleague and his friends. 

 

The gang took away her valuables and cash. On May 18, Kiran Singh, from Delhi, was found murdered at her home at Chikkagubbi in Kothanur, east Bengaluru. The killers are on the run.