Six months after Satbhaya -- councillor and also chairperson of the municipal law committee -- was murdered, the police managed to arrest only three people. They too were later freed on bail as the police were not sure if the three accused had any definite role to play in her murder, leave alone being the killers themselves.

Even worse, the DCB, which is investigating the case, has not filed a chargesheet against the accused so far.

Although the police still have no concrete proof to establish the cause of the murder, investigating officials have stated that Satbhaya was murdered because of her opposition to vested interests -- in all probabilities land deals -- and have categorically denied personal rivalry to be the reason behind the murder.

At least, as far as the Satbhaya case is concerned, the police have been at the receiving end, as events of the case clearly reveal. First, despite the sensational murder, the police reached the spot a good 45 minutes after the incident. That mistake, it seems, cost the then police commissioner and both additional commissioners, who were replaced in a week after the murder.

Then DCB PI M G Kaneriya announced days after taking over investigations that it could be a political murder. Half-way through the investigations, he even refused to divulge information about the case, leaving city Police Commissioner Kuldip Sharma to repeat time and again that ``investigations were going in the right direction,'' or that ``a few more arrests will be made as we are verifying information.''

Other names of accused divulged by Chandrakant Kahar, who now seems to be the main accused, have not been revealed by the police as yet.

The conclusion: the three arrested are free, a chargesheet has not been filed, no definite cause of murder has been ascertained, husband of the deceased councillor has been given a job in the civic body and the case papers are probably gathering dust in some attic of a police station.

Case History