04 September,2012 06:59 AM IST | | Vinay Dalvi
One has often heard of accused having to endure dirty surroundings and having to live in unhygienic conditions in police lock-ups. However, in an unexpected turn, the Kurla Government Railway Police (GRP) carried out pest control in their cells. The reason: they feared that one of their accused would eat a lizard or cockroach.
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The theft
On August 26, Siddhant Atul Mehta had gone to meet his friend at Vikhroli and while boarding the second-class compartment, realised that somebody had fled with his mobile phone costing around Rs 41,000.
Mehta immediately approached the Kurla GRP and lodged a complaint with the police. After receiving the complaint, police traced the location of the phone as the mobile had downloaded software without the accused's knowledge.
"We started tracking the tower location and arrested Nagarkar," said Shivaji Dhumal, senior police inspector of Kurla GRP. During investigations authorities learnt that he was a drug addict and that in the past he had fainted in lock-up after he had eaten a lizard, after suffering from withdrawal symptoms.
Fearing a repeat of the previous incident, officials immediately called up a pest control company and carried out pest control of the whole lock up so that all lizards and other insects would be killed. "We carried out pest control in the premises," added Dhumal. Officials added that they carried out the pest control, as they were afraid that if Nagarkar died or fainted on their watch, the police would be blamed. u00a0