Dog sniffs out cop who cast his shirt off at crime spot

A hurried change of clothes by a policeman fearful of receiving a dressingdown from superiors for donning civilian garb at a crime spot has put him in the doghouse in the ongoing investigations of a robberymurderu00a0MiD DAY had earlier reported how a senior citizen was found slaughtered on Friday in her Bhandup East house lsquo56yearold woman found murdered in apartmentrsquo April 27 Constable shows up at murder scene in Bhandup East in a casual shirt thrown over his khaki uniform Upon learning that his bosses might be there he removes it stuffs it in a plastic bag to avoid a talkingto by senior cops and discards it in the apartment where the murder occurred Crime Branch officials looking into the case found an abandoned shirt wrapped in a polythene bag from the victimrsquos apartment A dog squad was called After the hound was made to sniff the shirt he started barking furiously at a constable manning the crime scene Cops drew all the incriminating conclusions against one of their own But the truth of the matter ended up making the constable in question look more of a mutt than a murderer Herersquos how his shirt ended up at the crime scene he had put it there himself The constable was off duty when he was asked to report to the murder spot He rushed to the scene in the clothes he was wearing at the time a shirt thrown over his uniform A police officer told MiD DAY ldquoPolicemen usually rush to the spot after they come to know that a major crime has taken place given that we are shortstaffed When the sniffer dog brought in by the police is made to smell the shirt he gets a whiff of its owner the hapless constable who is downstairs manning the building where the crime took place The canine leaps at him growling and roaring IllustrationsAmit Bandre But after the constable in question reached the spot clad in a casual shirt he learnt that his superiors including a senior inspector and an assistant commissioner were going to visit shortly In order to avoid a scolding for being in plain clothes he hastily removed the shirt he was wearing over his uniform stuffed it in a plastic bag and shoved it into a corner of the room of the victimrsquos apartment The same shirt was later found by Crime Branch officialsrdquo Sleuths had earlier recovered two pairs of gloves from near the washbasin in the house which they thought belonged to the accused So they assumed that the shirt had also been left behind by the offender They looked at the tailorrsquos logo on the shirt and found that he was based in Dombivli A Crime Branch team was dispatched all the way to the far central suburb to trace the accused through the dressmaker Meanwhile the sniffer dog reached the spot and soaked in the shirtrsquos odour ldquoAll these events occurred in the room on the first floor while the constable who had discarded the shirt was downstairs managing the crowd gathered at the building When the sniffer dog was taken downstairs he wouldnrsquot leave the buildingrdquo the officer said Growling and roaring the hound located the shirtrsquos owner Everyone was wideeyed as the dog strained at the leash and bared his fangs at the sight of the constable The constable who remembered his forgotten piece of vestment causing all the uproar had to come clean Police officials verified that the shirt indeed belonged to him The Crime Branch team which was sent to Dombivli to look for the tailor was recalled And the case investigations were back on track after the avoidable deviation The force withheld the identity of the constable for obvious reasonsu00a0