India: Meet Robin Hood of Bihar, stealing from rich and spending on poor

Patna: A notorious thief who remained a headache for the police of at least 12 Indian states for years is credited with constructing concrete roads in seven villages in his home state of Bihar and generously helping the poor perform the wedding of their daughters, ultimately helping his wife win the district council elections with a comfortable margin.

Mohammad Irfan, a resident of Sitamarhi district in Bihar, had been liberally spending the stolen amount on carrying out various social works in the villages and helping the poor in distress. But the local villagers were not aware about his acts until the Uttar Pradesh police recently arrested him in connection with one such theft case.

Local villagers said Irfan constructed roads in seven villages spending over Rs10 million, helped perform marriage of dozens of poor girls, donated Rs2 million to a cancer patient and also paid the education fees of many poor children from his areas.

The villagers came to know about his “criminal acts” after the Uttar Pradesh police raided his house in Sitamarhi looking for Irfan. The police initially raided his native house in September but were unable to nab him. Recently, the police conducted raids again on specific information and arrested him.

“He used to move in luxury cars and randomly committed thefts in any house of his choice. As per our information, he has 25 cases registered against him in various states,” Ghaziabad superintendent of police Nipun Agarwal has told the media. The man is accused of committing thefts in several states, such as UP, Delhi, Punjab, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.

But the local villagers were hardly interested in what this thief did. This became clear when his wife Gulshan Praveen won elections for the post of district council member with a comfortable margin of 2,000 votes while Irfan cooled his heels in jail. The result of the elections was announced a couple of days back.

“We are hardly interested in what he did outside. For us, he did a lot by generously donating money on social works and improving road connectivity in the areas,” a local villager told the media wishing not to be quoted.

Irfan told his interrogators that he turned to crime 11 years back when his family faced several financial crises and was not in a position to pay dowry for the wedding of his sister. Subsequently, he left his village in search of jobs but ultimately began committing thefts in metro cities.

According to the thief, he normally targeted wealthy people and committed thefts in between 1 and 3 at night. Police said the accused had also committed thefts in the house of a judge in Delhi and stole Rs6.5 million and then in the house of a big businessman who has his house located near the Governor’s House in Goa. The thief currently owns everything, several luxury cars, a bungalow at his village and also landed properties.

“His guess was so accurate that he walked away with a minimum of Rs150,000 wherever he went. He used to sneak inside the bungalows in such a way that the security personnel were never able to catch him despite strict vigil. He never did a recce before committing the crime,” said a police official.