'why don't you use Facebook?'

HC SUGGESTS State police could follow traffic police, use social networking to address people’s grievances and update them on cases

You(police) do 10 good things,it will go unnoticed, but one thing goes wrong, and it will  highlighted.

Don't politicise it.

Looking at the response the traffic police’sFacebook homepage has received from citizens, the Bombay High Court suggested that the Maharashtra police use the social networking site to help citizens get in touch with them.

A division bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice PD Kode on Monday orally suggested that the state police consider starting a profile on Facebook to interact with the public and for people to be able to voice their grievances. The court also said complainants should be kept informed about the status of their cases.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Ashwini Rane,wife of slain Pune-based builder Nikhil Rane,seeking the transfer of investigation into her husband’smurder to an independent agency sincethere had been no progress in the probe.

Rane was killed on November 23,2009,when gangsters fired at him.Four people were arrested but nothing came out of their interrogation, police said.

Ashwini’s petition said the probe was going nowhere and sought that the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation. On July 13,the government handed over the probe to the CID.

The court has asked public prosecutor Pandering Pol to deconstructions from the government and inform the court by October 11 whether it was possible to implement the CID’s approach on having regular meetings for discussing the status of cases.

Ashwini’s lawyer,Anil Anturkar, argued that senior officers should review cases that have not been solved. “IftheCID has it (meetings),whycan’t the other departments have it?” Justice Khanwilkar said. “You (police)do10 good things, it will go unnoticed, but one thing goes wrong,and it will be highlighted. Don’t politicise it.” Justice Khanwilkar said:“You (police) can Twitter (tweet) complainants about case updates.” Pol had earlier told the court thatthereare12undetectedmurdercasesinPune.In four of these cases,the body had decomposed beyond recognition and could not be identified,he said,adding that the Pune police commissioner has formed a Special Task Force to detect these cases.