BENGALURU: Murdered Mother, Body In a Bag, Dying For Protection, The Stolen Baby... These may sound like filmy titles, but in reality, all of these are true-life incidents, which have been captured in Crime Stories: India Detectives. The brand new OTT series which released on Wednesday, follows the investigations of four gripping cases involving murder, extortion and kidnapping.
Directed by N Amit and Jack Rampling, the camera follows the Bengaluru city cops on a spine-chilling chase as they work on cracking the investigations. From a police official loading a gun to nab the accused, to an officer’s emotional side during an investigation, the series also delves into the complexities of cracking cases.
So far, western crime-thrillers have dominated OTT platforms, so this series stands out for its focus on India. Interestingly, the show only revolves around cases handled by the Bengaluru City Police. It was during the tenure of then police commissioner of Bengaluru Bhaskar Rao that the show was shot in January 2020. “This series is significant because people need to know how the police managed to crack investigations with such limited resources. Most often, crime thrillers show the razzmatazz of the police with hardly anyone portraying their emotional side. From tracking bus tickets to the e-commerce purchases of the accused, the series will be an eye-opener on how the police has harnessed the power of technology to crack cases.”
IPS officer MN Anucheth, DCP, Bengaluru Central division, who is featured in the series involving the murder of a mother by her daughter, believes that the series is one of its kind. “A daughter killing her mother is just unimaginable. The filmmakers tagged along with us from the crime scene till the filing of a chargesheet. We were camera-conscious in the beginning and a little hesitant to give out our modus operandi. But then, we got used to it after a few weeks,” says Anucheth, who was the deputy commissioner of police (Mahadevapura zone) in February 2020 when the series was filmed.
Shashi Kumar IPS, who was a supervisory officer for three of the four cases featured in the series, says, “All three were critical cases in my jurisdiction. We managed to solve two out of the three cases. The series is a realistic approach on how a crime is solved without any filters added to it. In the kidnapping case, one of the lady sub-inspectors, Roopa, was more worried about the child than the parents. This reflects the actual moments that we go through as police officers.”
A Murdered Mother
Supervisory officerMN Anucheth IPS
Case: An angry daughter kills her mother before attacking her brother in KR Puram, over a growing financial crisis in her family. The Bengaluru police trace the accused at Port Blair and arrest her.
Body in a Bag
Supervisory officer Shashi Kumar IPS
Case: A husband and wife duo plots the murder of Santosh, who is known to extort money and ask for sexual affairs. The body is found in a gunny bag in Nandini Layout, after which the police nab the accused using his phone details.
Dying for Protection
Supervisory officer
Shashi Kumar IPS
Case: The incident takes place in Subramanya Nagar where Manjula, a sex worker is murdered by a client after he refuses to wear a condom.
The Stolen Baby
Supervisory officer
Shashi Kumar IPS
Case: Ramya, a one-year-old baby, is kidnapped from Hebbal flyover, and sold by two abductors. Although the police manage to nab one accused, the other is still at large.