What makes Bunty Chor steal? Doctors say it is paranoid schizophrenia

Police say Bunty has struck several hundred times across the country and is now lodged in a Thiruvananthapuram prison for his role in a burglary in Kerala.

Last year,three medical boards that included psychiatrists,psychologists and psychiatric social workers from IHBAS examined Bunty in March,April and July.

According to documents accessed by Newsline,the three teams came to the same conclusion: “The board is of the opinion that the patient is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and requires continued treatment for the same.” One of the common types of schizophrenia,patients of this subtype have traits of paranoia with delusions about themselves and people around them.

Dr Nimesh Desai,Director of IHBAS,said: “Bunty was brought here for an initial examination. But seeing his condition,we admitted him. Later when the court asked for our medical opinion,we constituted a formal medical board three times to confirm our diagnosis and arrived at the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.”

Bunty’s claims of being a “perfectionist thief” and his obsession for stealing,Desai said,“could be attributed to the diagnosis of schizophrenia”.

Tihar Jail authorities had written to the Delhi government’s Health department in April last year,questioning his extended stay at IHBAS: “It is well known that he is a malingerer and fakes mental illness. We are not able to understand why he is being detained in IHBAS this long for a medical opinion,without a formal reception order.”

Sources said his treatment continued till his release from Tihar Jail last August. It is not clear whether he persisted with it later. Doctors at IHBAS said the Thiruvananthapuram prison,where he is lodged currently,has not sought details on his diagnosis and treatment.

Bunty has the reputation of a serial thief who,despite attempts by police to rehabilitate him in a detective agency,continued to strike. He was finally arrested in January this year for a robbery at the house of a NRI businessman in Kerala.

He has 58 cases against him in Delhi alone,and several others across the country. Bunty was last arrested by Delhi Police on January 20,2012. After he was produced in court,the judge ordered his examination by psychiatrists from a government hospital on his “disorderly behaviour”.