Police Crack Blind Case Within 36 Hours Using CCTV Footage and Sharp Investigation
Munish Sood
Baijnath: In one of the strangest confessions to emerge from Himachal in recent times, a 34-year-old man arrested by Baijnath police on Saturday evening admitted that he set two buses on fire — simply because he was feeling cold.
The man, identified as Sushant Kumar, an electrician by profession and an ITI graduate, told police during interrogation that on Thursday night, while returning from Palampur in a drunken state, he felt freezing cold. To warm himself, he allegedly lit a fire beneath the front tyre of a Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus parked near the corporation’s workshop on the Pathankot–Mandi National Highway. Moments later, the flames spread, engulfing the bus.
But Sushant’s bizarre act didn’t stop there. Just a short distance away stood a Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) bus. Still shivering, he decided to light another fire beneath it — and soon, both vehicles were ablaze. The twin infernos shocked locals and officials alike, as the incident seemed to have no motive, no suspects, and no witnesses.
For nearly a day, the case remained a mystery — what the police termed a “blind case.” Then, a new lead surfaced. On Friday evening, police received information about a car with a broken rear window on Pandol Road, nearly a kilometer from the bus stand. SHO Yadesh Thakur and his team reached the spot, reviewed CCTV footage from nearby buildings, and discovered something odd.
The footage showed a man collecting plastic bottles under a parked car and attempting to set them on fire. When the bottles didn’t catch, he angrily hurled a stone at the car, shattering its rear glass.
The man in the video matched the description of someone seen near the HRTC workshop earlier. Acting swiftly, the police began a search operation and by Saturday evening, tracked down Sushant Kumar to his native Chathmi village, about eight kilometers from Baijnath.
During questioning, Sushant admitted to all three incidents — the burning of two buses and the vandalism of a private car. He claimed he was under the influence of alcohol and had no intention of causing damage, insisting repeatedly that “it was too cold that night.”
Police later found that after torching the buses, Sushant had walked toward the Baijnath bus stand and even pelted a stone at a Dogra Bus, damaging its window before continuing toward Pandol Road.
“This was a completely blind case, but our team connected the dots through CCTV analysis and field intelligence,” said SHO Yadesh Thakur, who led the operation. “The accused’s confession was as surprising as it was senseless. Setting vehicles on fire to escape cold is something we’ve never heard before.”
Sushant, who lives in a rented room along Pandol Road, is now in police custody and will be produced before court on Sunday.
The case, which could have easily gone unsolved, highlights how a mix of prompt action, surveillance footage, and investigative instinct helped Baijnath police crack a baffling incident within just 36 hours — and uncovered a confession as cold and curious as the night it began.
