Robbery has turned into a normal occurrence in Dhaka and the surrounding areas. The incidents of robbery have increased at an alarming rate in the recent times. Especially during Eid, it takes a dangerous turn as the city gets deserted during this festival. It can be said without a shadow of a doubt that many robber gangs are now active in different cattle haats and sneaking around to swindle people.

In this connection, it is mentionable that Section 383 of the Penal Code states “Whoever intentionally puts any person in fear of any injury to that person, or to any other, and thereby dishonestly induces the person so put in fear to deliver to any property or valuable security, or anything signed or sealed which may be converted into a valuable security, commits ‘extortion’.”

So, robbery is definitely a punishable crime.

On the one hand, police say that strict measures have been taken to stop incidents of robbery, on the other hand we see that robbery is going on unabated. It’s because gangs keep robbing people and stealing things owing to a very lax implementation of the laws.

There are various active robber gangs in Dhaka city such as Malam Party. They target passengers, put ointment on the victim's eyes, and the person gets blind for a while.

There are other parties who are active in buses, launches and trains. Nowadays handshake parties are seen everywhere in Dhaka as well as other populous cities. They target certain people and keep following them. Later, when they are alone, they rob them by showing a knife or pistol. A helpless man in such a situation gives everything to save his life.

According to the police, more than six thousand people are involved in crimes like robbery and dacoity in the capital Dhaka. Out of which, 1,737 people are involved in robbery.

According to police sources, miscreants usually block roads and take money and valuables at gunpoint. Police officials say that area-based robberies are more common. Badda, Mirpur, Shahbagh, Moghbazar, Ramna, Malibagh Railgate, Dhaka Medical College area, Gulistan, Dhanmondi, New Market and Science Laboratory areas are most prone to robbery and hijacking.

These incidents happen under the very nose of the law enforcement agencies. As I mentioned earlier in this piece, one of the reasons is that the robbers or miscreants are not usually punished or the conviction rate is very low.

Analysing the data of looting incidents that happened in the last 14 years in the capital city, it can be seen that while some cases have been prosecuted, there has been no progress in most of the cases. Most hijackers remain undetected. Such information was obtained from stats revealed by the police headquarters a few years back. The stats also say that around 88 per cent of robbers in the capital have not been prosecuted.

As a sociology student, I can say that this kind of immunity emboldens the criminals to commit more heinous crimes. As a result, we often come across news items publishing reports of police officials busting robber gangs or arresting members of Malam party. But the incidents of robbery and hijacking do not actually decrease exponentially.

To address this problem, it is important that the police gets more serious about filing proper charge sheet so that the conviction rate gets higher. Only then, some kind of fear will work as a deterring factor among the robbers and miscreants.

We understand that eliminating these kinds of crimes completely is not impossible. But at least, law enforcers should be proactive and a dedicated team should be formed to combat robbery.