Jail's CCTV footage may reveal pistol thief, say cops

AHMEDABAD: The city cops are still clueless about who abandoned police sub-inspector P K Asoda's stolen service pistol in the Sabarmati Jail campus. Senior police officials said there are six cc tv cameras which cover the spot from where the pistol was found by the jail staff.
"We are examining the footage but till now we have not struck upon the video showing somebody abandoning the pistol.Moreover we suspect that the pistol might be abandoned in the night and hence the video footage might not be clear" said a senior police official.
According to jail officials, while cleaning the campus a jail official found the pistol abandoned about 50 feet away from the small barricaded jail gate located opposite Sabarmati railway station.
Police sources said sub-inspector Asoda who is already under suspension for being negligent. On July 8, while on night duty he went to relieve himself near a construction site in Charodi area and put the pistol on the vehicle bonnet, he later forgot to put the pistol back into the holster and it was lost.
Police officials said the fact that service weapon of the sub inspector was found from the fail campus is a matter of concern for them. "However it is too early to say that the weapon might have been kept at the place for it to be smuggled in the jail as a part of some conspiracy. The place where it was dumped is out of the core jail area and nobody is allowed to go there except the jail staff."
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Usha Rada said the investigation is on and very soon they will trace the person who abandoned the SI's service pistol.