'Paw'some Effort: Arjun beats CCTV, sniffs burglar out in record 3 hours

For the city police, it was a rare instance of sniffer dog leading them to suspects. Two-year-old Doberman Pinscher, Arjun, handled by S Prabakaran, became the talk of the town after cracking the case as it was the first time in recent history a sniffer dog solved a case.

The burglary took place at the house of B Karthik (25) in Agathi Muthan street in Royapettah, on December 20 when he stepped out with his family. On their return, they found that the house was burgled in which they lost 14 sovereigns and Rs 5,000.

After alerting the police, Arjun and Prabakaran’s training were put to test. Both the dog and his master are together since Arjun was just three months old. “Arjun, after sniffing around the house of the complainant, followed the trail of the burglar and stood in front of a house in the same complex. When police questioned neighbours about possible visitors, we were told about Sathish Kumar of Arumbakkam, who had made a visit to his friend’s house in the same complex,” Zam Bazaar crime inspector Jyothilakshmi said.

After verifying the CCTV footage to identify the visitor, police found that the dog used the same path to themain road which Sathish had used. Police then rushed to the house of Sathish and nabbed him. They also recovered stolen valuables from him in just three hours.

Dog squad administrative sub inspector Ananda Mohan said that in a busy city like Chennai, it is difficult for dogs to sniff their way to the suspect. City police commissioner A K Viswanathan had acknowledged the contribution of Prabhakaran and Arjun team and rewarded them.