Nagpur: A daring armed robbery in Bezonbagh has once more exposed the city’s crippled Smart City surveillance network, with investigators forced to depend on private CCTV footage after finding government-installed cameras out of service.
Grain trader Raju Dipani was attacked on Wednesday night by bike-borne assailants who opened fire before fleeing with what is now suspected to be nearly ₹50 lakh. Dipani initially claimed he carried only ₹2 lakh, later revising the figure to ₹1.5 lakh, and finally acknowledging that the cash was collected from fellow businessmen—fueling suspicions of hawala transactions.
Key junctions such as Kadbi Square, Indora and Bezonbagh yielded no footage from the Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited (NSSCDCL) network. “The issue of non-functional cameras has persisted for a long time and continues to hamper investigations. Despite repeated letters and meetings with the department concerned, little has changed,” a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Crime Branch sources confirmed that five special teams and Jaripatka police are now relying heavily on human intelligence and privately installed cameras to track the culprits. They warned that the missing Smart City footage has already delayed the probe and deprived investigators of crucial evidence.
Officials estimate that 40–60 percent of the Smart City cameras remain non-operational, with many damaged during ongoing National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Public Works Department (PWD) projects. The steady rise in defunct cameras has once again raised serious concerns over the city’s ambitious surveillance programme and its ability to aid law enforcement during critical investigations.
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