Burglary during Lockdown

When corona -induced lockdown was announced  in March, at that time ,  there was no one in our village house . My mother was unwell and she was with my elder brother in Bhagalpur .  In Village, the house was properly locked . In May, our neighbour who is our blood relative  informed to my mother regarding burglary in our house . Burglars  climbed the wall and reached the roof and through stairs came down and broke the locks of main iron grill gate , then broke open the doors of three rooms . Burglars broke the doors of almirahs, locks of VIPs, boxes and took away jewelleries, saries , quilts etc. They thoroughly searched the almirah and trunk which were full of books and other papers. Along with other articles, some papers related to land was also missing .

I was also informed about the burglary and loss . After listening all the details and doing some brainstorming I came up with few points :- 

• In this burglary, the role of neighbour  who is our blood relative is questionable . The circumstantial evidence indicates that either he is directly involved in it or he is complicit in it . Such doubts can be confirmed through thorough investigation only .
• In lockdown, people from mars or moon can't come to do burglary . Few other villages are also involved in it .
• Few burglaries or attempt of burglaries also took place in village . Some new crops of youths having criminal tendencies may involve in it . Their deviant behaviour can be corrected at this juncture through counseling and right course of action . 

It looks bizzare but those houses  are burgled or attempted to be burgled ,  expect one, no one approached to the police for FIR . Even from our house, we did not approach to police . I find , these are the reasons why we did not file FIR  :-

•  The relationships with neighbours and blood relatives are different but delicate one . The co-operation and conflicts go together . If police do any coercive measures to suspects , it may harm career and progress of them which we don't want . We want all should do well through right and just means and deeds .
• What we feel we do not have any such enmity with anybody that they would harm us by doing burglary . If anyone has latent jealousy, envy, heartburn with us that we can't say . Complaining to police bring confusion, distrust and negativity among others that any peaceful and progressive minded person wants to avoid .
• If burglary is committed by youths then their deviant behaviour will be labelled as criminal if police action are taken against them . Such actions have far reaching affect on a person's life and career. A sensible person doesn't want any bad for even such deviants .
• People have so many problems in their own life . In our case, my mother is seriously ill at present . She needs to be operated but due to various medical reasons and complications , it is getting delayed . Being Headmaster of a school, my brother has reasonable responsibilities of school administration . He has to look after compliance of departmental orders, family life, wellbeing of family etc .  Though incident like burglary bother us, but sometimes letting go  becomes necessary for peaceful and less stress life .
• It has been observed that once articles stolen from home is hardly recovered by police . Such cases end in inconsequence . Though police take actions against suspects and they suffer economic loss but it does not help to those who houses are burgled .
• We believe in God and his justice system . Today or tomorrow those who have committed crime , they will have to pay the price in God's court .

Despite all these brainstorming, I have been contemplating  to bring such matter in cognizance of some high officials and administrative officers of Bihar and that area so that corrective measures are taken in this regard .

I have studied Rural Development Management from the premier institution NIRDPR which is an autonomous body of Ministry of Rural Development . Though I am not a practicing rural development professional but I have very romantic ideas of villages . Any disturbing news from any village hurt me, give me pain in my heart . Gandhiji's gram Swaraj, self reliant, morally strong, economically independent village somewhere stays in my mind all the time . During my study , I had visited many real model villages not paper model village , which used to make me very happy . Will my village come under such catogery in real sense ? Will we listen positive news from village , story of peace, progress  and success as routine in near future ? I do not know the answer but I am hopeful that things will be alright today or tomorrow .

~~~ Ramanuj Dubey