Visakhapatnam: Dog that cracked 130 cases dies

Visakhapatnam: An eight-year old female police dog died after she was injured while playing football in Vizianagaram on Saturday evening. She had helped the police crack over 130 cases. The Vizianagaram police cremated the Dobermann, Varsha, with state honours on Sunday.

Mr M. Narasimha Rao, Vizianagaram additional superintendent of police (administration), announced the death of ‘Varsha’, who was from the 12th batch of the Intelligence Integrated Training Academy (IITA) in Moinabad near Hyderabad.

Varsha, rated as an ‘excellent’ grade police dog, was the first crime tracker allotted to Vizianagaram district in 2011, when she was three months old.

Speaking of the prominent cases which she helped crack, Mr N. Srinivasa Rao, her handler, said Varsha had helped collect strong evidence in a case where a woman killed her husband in Vizianagaram One Town police station limits. The woman was sentenced for life.

Varsha also gave supportive clues to the Cheepurupalli police in the murder of an old man. It turned out that he had been killed by his son-in-law in his sleeping. In both cases, the convicted murderers were the complainants.

Varsha participated in combing operation on the Andhra Odisha Border. She was involved in the squad to detect explosives during VIP visits. She had bagged awards during Independence Day and Republic Day demonstrations.

Four days back, she suffered jaw injury while playing football. She was admitted into Government Veterin-ary Hospital in Vizag. The veterinary doctors tried live blood transfusion from another dog, but she succumbed due to her anaemia.