Mangaluru city police have widened their surveillance net to include residential high-rises, warning apartment associations that illegal activities will no longer be tolerated inside their compounds.
The crackdown follows several files showing offenders hiding in flats. In the recent Suhas Shetty murder, investigators learned the suspects had been living in a Bajpe apartment where the plot was hatched. Detectives say similar “safe-house” strategies surfaced in earlier probes as well.
Police commissioner Sudheer Kumar Reddy has asked every apartment management committee to stay vigilant. Smaller buildings are of special concern: many double as unregistered paying-guest hostels where owners lease rooms to students or employees without keeping tenancy or visitor logs. Security guards—often migrants from distant districts—are posted with little background screening, making tracking movement even harder.
Fresh instructions are now in force. No visitor may step in without ID verification, and every name, phone number, and time-stamp must be written in a register. Guards must ring the mobile numbers provided to confirm authenticity. All complexes must install 24×7 CCTV coverage, archiving footage for at least 30 days.
Officers cite a stark precedent: terrorist Yasin Bhatkal and an accomplice rented a flat in Attavar back in 2008, quietly assembling bombs—including the device used in Hyderabad’s 2013 Dilsukhnagar blast—while neighbours remained clueless. Reddy stressed such oversight “will not be repeated,” urging boards to embrace the new protocols immediately.
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