Monday saw a bizarre chain of events play out at Nalasopara. First, during the wee hours, residents of a housing society nabbed a thief and hauled him to the police station. There, on duty officials were captured on camera dozing. To add to that, after conducting a medical examination on him at a government hospital in Vasai, the cops asked the residents to keep the thief in their custody.
After hearing sounds from his neighbour's flat at Snehal Apartment in Nalasopara (E) around 3:30am, Gyaneshwar Gaikwad tried stepping out. However, his door was locked from the outside and sensing something amiss, he alerted his neighbours, which is when the thief was caught.
Narrating how they failed to get in touch with the police, Gaikwad said, "We tried calling the police, but they picked up their phone's receiver and kept it on its side, so that calls would not get through. When we took the thief to the police station, we found cops sleeping and recorded footage of that on a cellphone camera."
After waking the officials up, Gaikwad told of how the police told the residents to take the thief for a medical check-up. He adds, "The officials wrote a memo and after the medical examination, they asked us to keep him in our custody till morning. When we protested and asked for a police official to remain with us till then, they denied us that."
In the past too, this lackadaisical approach by the Nalasopara cops has been criticized in social groups as this is not the first incident of them burking a case. Crime rates in the region has also increased tremendously.
Sunil Shewale, a social worker, was furious over the police shirking duty by sleeping. He said, "If the police itself is not responsible enough, then why should we need them if we ourselves have to nab thieves and conduct duties they are supposed to carry out? Why waste taxpayers' money on these lazy bugs who just sleep instead of patrolling the streets. Moreover there were only two policemen at the time, and both were asleep."
Ravindra Badguzar, senior inspector, Nalasopara police station, remained unavailable despite repeat attempts to contact him. An on duty official confirmed the theft and break in and informed that the thief had been taken into custody for investigation.
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