Sometimes, the police can be too efficient. On Saturday, the Chandigarh Police announced with puffed-up chests that they had recovered a stolen car within 15 minutes. What they didn’t say was this: the man they arrested — and kept in jail for three days — is a 52-year-old college official who was in the car to answer a distress call.Vijay Sharma, a diabetic and patient of chronic depression, was out on his evening stroll on Saturday when he was asked by two youths to help push their car. Declining on health grounds, he instead volunteered to sit at the wheel.Minutes later, a police vehicle drove up and, as the two youth fled, Sharma — PA to the principal of a local college — was left high and dry. He was marched to the police station and kept behind bars for three days despite his pleas that he was innocent and had taught some police officers who, he said, could vouch for him.However, focusing firmly on their ability to catch a ‘car thief’ within 15 minutes of the complaint, the police ignored him. They also charged him with stealing Rs 10,000, though later they admitted they couldn’t trace the money.Eventually, Sharma was let out on bail this evening after a delegation of professors led by Sharma’s boss A C Vaid, the principal of SD College, met the IG and SSP.The incident has left Sharma, undergoing treatment for his ailments, a shattered man. ‘‘I already own two cars, why will I steal a car,’’ he asks.Chandigarh SSP Gaurav Yadav said he’d sought a report from the DSP (South). While promising to ‘‘find out the truth’’, Yadav didn’t comment on whether the police had rushed into booking Sharma without proper investigation.
