Nobel: By hook or by crook after crook

From Durgapur to South 24 Parganas, burglars have never had it so bad. And they are all blaming the man who made off with Tagore’s Nobe...

From Durgapur to South 24 Parganas, burglars have never had it so bad. And they are all blaming the man who made off with Tagore’s Nobel medal last week.

Because that single act — the CBI has already been entrusted charge of the probe and the Prime Minister, who has expressed concern over the Santiniketan theft, will be there in person tomorrow — has landed hundreds of burglars in deep trouble with the Bengal police: everyone’s being hauled in.

From the night burglar to the day operator, from the man who wriggles in through ventilators to the one who’s a master in grill-cutting, they are all in the net.

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Don’t blame us, says a senior police officer. ‘‘Our teams have realised one thing. Recovering the Nobel medal will be no less a feat than winning the Nobel itself. It’s a make or break case for every policeman.’’

So these are indeed torrid times for burglars. Every hour there’s a police raid on in Kolkata and in the areas adjoining the city. By now, hundreds — small, big, old and new burglars, petty thieves — are cooling their heels.

But in this case, unlike other cases, any arrest worth the name has to be backed by recovery of the priceless medal. So senior officers have set the standards: fingerprints of every credible suspect have to match prints lifted by forensics from the Santiniketan museum. Some four to five different prints were said to have been lifted from the scene of the crime.

This is the litmus test which most ‘‘leads’’ have failed to clear. Many burglars have been screened for fingerprints, interrogated and released but there are scores still under detention.

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The closest the police thought they had come to a breakthrough was when South 24 Parganas’ burglar-in-chief was arrested within two days of the medal theft. From Canning area in South 24 Parganas, he was arrested years ago in Bolpur, a town near Santiniketan, after he cut window grills to break into homes.

But this time, he disowned the medal theft and named people dealing in stolen antiques. This led the police to a man in Baranagar, north of Kolkata. The police found a painting, where ‘‘Rabindra 1938’’ had been neatly inscribed. There was also some silverware.

The police thought they had their catch. Word spread that the Nobel medal has been traced. People even began to gather outside the house. But the police excitement evaporated when they realised they were looking at items stolen from an old palace in Santipur. Disappointed they may have been but the police are not giving up. Ask the burglars.