Treat all crimes with seriousness and report it

Representative image. Pic/ istock

Two young men have been caught for threatening and robbing a photojournalist with what turned out to be a toy gun at Worli and doing away with Rs 15,000. As per news reports, the victim was exiting a Worli venue after finishing his work when two bike-borne young men confronted him and asked him to part with cash. They threatened him with a gun which, as was later found out, was a false or toy gun. New reports cite that they hit him on the head with the gun butt and fled.

They were nabbed after a complaint was filed. Vital though is the police statement that the two accused seemed to have used this modus operandi for other thefts too. Several persons may have been robbed but they had not filed a complaint since the amounts may have been small.

That statement shows us how important it is to file a complaint when attacked, as it is the only way to ensure the accusers are caught, rather than letting go of the matter. People are still afraid of filing complaints first because of the rigmarole they think they will get into, which is true to an extent, and also because they are fearful of the repercussions.

This reflects not too well on our system of course, which needs to iron out these flaws and instil confidence in people about expeditious handling of cases, and protection. What needs to be highlighted though is that we do not dismiss this as ‘trivial' or ‘small' and not complain. This could be serious if the bike had hit the victim if he had tried to run away or maybe if he had resisted these robbers and a scuffle ensued. Filing a complaint also means that others will not be targeted this way. Treat this crime with the seriousness it deserves and do not simply focus on the amount of money robbed.