Burglars propose, neighbours dispose

At about 3 a.m., one of the neighbours (name withheld on request) was awaken by some strange sounds. Says he, “I could hear some thumping sounds coming from the flat above mine, and since no one lives in Lalitkumar Bothra’s house, I suspected it to be thieves. So I immediately called up another neighbour, Jafferbhai.”

If these thieves knew that it was Police Inspector Peer Mohammed Abdul Gaffar Jafferbhai’s territory they were venturing into, they’d have beaten a hasty retreat… for it was thanks to him that the thieves were eventually caught.

On getting the call, Jafferbhai first looked out of his window and saw a motorcycle parked outside, a sight which raised his suspicions. “I felt there was something wrong because there is plenty of parking space in our building, only an outsider would park like that.”

Dilshad, his wife, now wide awake, reckoned that it was a routine duty call for her husband. But as he rushed after answering the phone, she realised there was something amiss. “He had rushed upstairs unarmed, so I was apprehensive,” she said.

At first, he went up to the third floor flat for an inspection. And what he saw confirmed his suspicions. “The latch was broken. Moreover, the inside door was slightly open. I did the best I could under the circumstances – I shut the door and locked it from outside.” All this time, Jafferbhai was unarmed. His sons, both wide awake on being told where their father had gone, immediately swung into action. Says Dilshad, “My younger son, Zubin (12) had already loaded his father’s revolver. Armed with a gun, my husband was accompanied by my elder son Shoaib (14) as he went upstairs again”.

Jafferbhai’s aim was to ensure the arrest of the thieves. “I did not want to hurt them, just prevent their escape. Besides, I did not know whether they were armed or not, so I could take no chances. For us policemen, it is very hard to catch a criminal red-handed and this seemed like a golden opportunity”.

Gun in hand, Jafferbhai locked the three doors of the building leading to the terrace – to prevent the thieves from escaping. Bothra’s house is on the third floor, with a spiral stairway leading to the terrace. This private terrace is then accessible to the other two terraces which are half a floor below.

After securing all the escape routes, Jafferbhai called the police control room and the fire brigade on his wireless. He then switched on the lights to Bothra’s house, which he keeps switched off at all times. Since the Bothras live in Jodhpur, Jafferbhai has been entrusted with the upkeep of the flat.

Meanwhile the neighbour who had earlier telephoned Jafferbhai, saw (through a peephole) that Jafferbhai was moving up and down the building. Says he, “Only then did I feel it safe to venture out. We asked the women and children to stay put indoors and had all the men gherao the building – to prevent escape”.

When the lights were switched on suddenly, the thieves – Balram Tupe and Goga Singh Tak – realised that they were caught. And tried to escape. Adds Jafferbhai, “They first tried to put the aluminum ladder from the window down to the window of the second floor, but I saw them and yelled from below, `Don’t try it, you’ll simply fall and kill yourself’.

Says Ujjwala Bhalerao, who resides in the ground floor flat, “We were under the impression that some burglars were trying to break into our flat. When I opened the front door, it seemed as if the whole building seemed to have come alive – with my neighbours rushing up and down. Zubin told me about the two burglars who had broken into the terrace flat. My husband Vasant rushed out to join the rest of the men in the compound”.

Fifteen minutes had passed and the police jeep and fire brigade arrived. On seeing the men in uniform, Tak and Tupe, investigators feel, must have panicked for they tried another escape route. They tied the ladder to a mosquito net and lowered it down the window from the back of the house.

Unfortunately for them, the net broke… and put an end to their escape efforts. Jafferbhai fired a shot in the air, trying to talk the men into a surrender. “All the time I was telling these men not to worry, that I would not harm them. I said, `Surrender and at the most you may spend some time in the jail.’ But Tak replied that they were afraid of being beaten up by the people gathered. I assured them otherwise but they did not give up”.

Almost an hour and a half was up, patience was wearing thin. Jafferbhai, along with two other policemen, went up to the terrace next to Bothra’s. They entered Bothra’s from the spiral staircase leading down.

“On going down, I saw Tupe sprawled on the steps with a rope around his neck. He was muttering in a most dramatic fashion, `Paani, paani,’ as though he were dying. This was obviously a suicide attempt. He was even bleeding from his head; this must have been from a self-inflicted injury rather than a genuine fall,” alleges Jafferbhai. Unmoved, Jafferbhai walked down and tied Tupe’s feet together. That done, he went into the house to look for Tak.

Of all the places, Tak chose the kitchen to hide himself. He crouched in the small space between the open fridge door and the cabinets. Jafferbhai found his monkey cap peeping from behind the fridge and confronted him, gun in hand. Says Jafferbhai, “Tak had a two-feet-long sword that he pointed towards me, threatening to kill either himself or me. This is a typical strategy employed by thieves when they are caught. An ordinary man with no experience may feel sorry for them and let them go, but I know this type only too well,” he says. Tak and Tupe were arrested and are presently in police custody. It was only after the drama was over that Jafferbhai got a chance to notice the losses. A detailed inspection revealed that all the Bothras lost were their so-called sturdy locks. Tak and Tupe, both history-sheeters, broke open about eight locks in all. Nothing valuable had been stolen except for a fake gold chain worth Rs 150.

“Since my husband was armed, I was not scared for him or my son. And later, the police arrived. I had always heard tales of how my husband went about his duty as a policeman but this was the first time I actually got to see the kind of situations he faces,” says a proud Dilshad.

Says one of the neighbours, Dhiren Kurani, a building contractor, “On our own, we would not have dared to get out of our flats. We were saved because Jafferbhai took the lead and the police responded to his call promptly. There have been burglaries in other buildings in the area but we never imagined it could happen in our building”.

Would a security guard have helped prevent such a burglary? “A watchman serves no purpose other than a cursory salaam every now and then,” he says, adding that an alert neighbourhood network offers the most effective security cover. “All of us stick together in times of crises,” he said.

Says Jafferbhai, “This experience stands testimony to the scheme introduced by our Police Commissioner – aapla schezari aapla paherekari. For had it not been for our neighbour’s alertness, the thieves would have gotten away”. With more than just a Rs. 150 necklace!