In conversation with ACP Rajendra Prasad
A session was organized on Sunday 20th October in the MPH, hosted by the Society. It was planned at the request of ACP Rajendra Prasad, also acting SHO of Hauz Khas, to share his learning from themurder case of a house help in Panchshila Park on 26 th September 2024 (covered in the previous month’s issue), which he investigated and solved within 18 days,nabbing all 4 criminals involved.The session was a grand success with appx 65 people, mostly senior citizens, attending the meeting. Although the event was focused on sharing learnings from the crime incident, the discussion covered a range of topics including traffic woes, parking problems of neighbors and taxis in our colony etc. Whilst not all answers were readily available, Mr Prasad was transparent in his sharing.
Key insights gained from the session regarding crime prevention against Senior citizens
1. Get as much information as you can about the people who work for you, including documents like
Aadhar card and PAN, names of their relatives and the mobile numbers, home address etc.,
photographs of themselves and even their relatives. These come in handy during investigation.
2. Inform neighbors if you are going out of town or inform the police who can then be vigilant.
3. One benefit of senior citizens registering themselves is that they can seek help from the cops if they are stranded somewhere on the road or are having a problem at home.
4. Don’t wear expensive jewelry and come out to buy vegetables or go for a walk in the park.
5. Avoid non-peak hours for walking in big parks where miscreants may be present at those times.
6. Don’t share OTPs with any strangers. Avoid picking up unknown calls (if you do so in order to receive packets etc., please don’t follow their instruction of dialing 1, 9 etc if they ask you to do so) Forms to register senior citizens and their staff with the police station were pre-circulated by the Society to re-initiate the dormant process. Some registrations happened on the spot as well but it was a slow process and many people did not have hard copies of ID/address proof documents like Aadhar and Voter card. On a request from Mr. Jasjit Singh, ACP Prasad agreed for the Society to consolidate forms to register senior citizens and send them together to the police station for bulk registration.
We appreciate the efforts of Mr. Jasjit Singh, Vice President of the Managing Committee and Chairperson of the Society Affairs’ Subcommittee, ably supported by Captain Paintola and Mr. Asaram, for putting together a successful event.
It will now be crucial to follow through with the suggestions of getting senior citizens and house staff registered with the police and to take the precautions advised by ACP Prasad.
His feedback about some non-functional CCTV cameras and their inadequate numbers in the colony is noteworthy. Action in this area will only be possible if every resident comes forward and strengthens the Society’s hands by paying their maintenance fee regularly.
