Police’ advice: Carry laptop to the toilet while in house

Bengaluru: “Why didn’t you carry your laptop bag into the toilet while at home? You left it on the table and it’s gone,” remarked a Hennur police station official to the complainant, Neeraj Kumar Dwivedi (34). Apart from the laptop, the bag also contained three gold finger rings, original documents including passport, educational certificates and two cheque books.

Though the theft happened nearly two months ago, there has been little progress, despite numerous visits by Neeraj to the police station. The incident happened at his house, located in Maruti Layout, Hennur Cross, Kalyan Nagar, on June 25 around 7am. He had placed the bag on the dining table and gone to toilet. His father, Radhey Shyam Dwivedi had opened the door to get milk from the milkman, and soon they found the bag had vanished.

Neeraj alleged that though the total estimate of goods stolen was about Rs 2 lakh, when he approached the police to lodge an FIR, he was told to state that losses were only Rs 20,000 or else the FIR would not be registered. To add to his agony, Neeraj was asked to furnish the duplicate copy of all his lost original documents, laptop serial number and invoice of other stolen items, if he wanted the complaint to be registered. “When I approached the Hennur police station to register the theft complaint, the police undervalued all the items which were stolen.

At the time of lodging an FIR, they told me that if I put the correct value then they will not register the FIR.  Police will not write what you have estimated. It is the police who will decide the estimated loss,” Neeraj observed. He further said that “When I asked whether I should write in English or Hindi as I don’t know Kannada, the police asked me to write in English. And thereafter an FIR was registered on June 25 evening.”

When the complainant asked the writer to read out the FIR copy to him, the police officer allegedly told Neeraj that whatever the complainant had stated has been mentioned in it. But minutes later, the techie realised that the police have undervalued all the stolen items and have registered the estimated value as Rs 20,000 instead of Rs 2 lakh.

Since then the complainant had visited the police station numerous times, but there was no sign of his bag. “The police have not done anything so far. It’s been two months since I lodged a complaint.

Every time, when I go to enquire about the progress of my case, the police tell me that I would never get back documents and other stolen items,” he said. Worried about the lack of progress, Neeraj is now contemplating to meet the city police commissioner M. N. Reddi. Niraj hails from Gorakhpur and had come to the city two years ago.