A friend lost her bag to two bag-snatchers one morning. She was returning home in an auto, after a night shift at the airport and the pickpockets, who were on bike, grabbed the bag while both vehicles were in motion. My friend who did not let go of the bag, engaged in a tussle with the pickpockets. But on finding herself being thrown out of the auto, she let go. The auto-driver chased the bike for a while but finally lost it to a maze of vehicles.
My friend who was in shock and bruised, headed straight to the closest police station. The police officer first asked for the exact location and sent a constable with the auto driver to identify the spot. This constable returned to say the location technically did not come under its authority.
She had to go to another police station.
There, she waited for an hour after which the first question the officer asked was: “Exactly kahaan hogaya chori madam?” After he was convinced about the site, he bombarded her with a barrage of questions. At the end, she was handed a small piece of paper which listed the stolen items. No FIR.
All this time, the auto driver kept telling the police that he could identify the culprits, for a sketch – no one bothered. He finally left but not before leaving his cell number with my friend.
The stolen bag was new and cost Rs 8,000. It contained a smart phone, lots of bills, a few thousand rupees in cash, precious religious articles and important identity cards – which meant no entry to her workplace (airport.) To avail of a temporary identity card, she had to go back to the police for a paper, which it should have handed over to her the first day itself.
She gave her phone IMEI number to the police as well but nothing came from it.
Days passed – no progress. A local politician had died and every time she called, she was told police were on bandobast.
The case hit the newspapers as 3 more similar incidents were recorded in the same area.
The police called, asked her to come to come over for an FIR. A DCP also called her to offer his condolences and to assure that his team was trying its best to locate her bag. A few days later, she was called again to give a statement on how satisfied she was with the investigations! An hour later she was called again by another police officer who instructed her to not go to the police station. The calls continued randomly.
On all her visits, she asked the police to only retrieve her identity cards as she had to make several trips to the local airport for a temporary one. Finally, after many weeks, a senior police officer called her. He said: “I have a statement with me which says you FORGOT your bag in the auto!”
She gave up.