A B.Tech in Computer Science, Aditya Sharma, one civil engineer diploma holder, Deepak Das, and a law graduate, Jhujhar Singh, are among 400 educated people arrested for committing offences such as snatching, vehicle theft, burglaries — all classified as petty offences — in the last 15 months across Chandigarh. The trend, according to Chandigarh Police and legal experts, is “alarming”. Advertising According to the data collected from Chandigarh Police by Chandigarh Newsline, at least 400 people out of 470 arrested for burglaries, snatching, motor vehicle thefts in the last 15 months, were found to be educated, with a few even holding professional degrees. At least 35 out of these 400 educated accused were found graduates who hold professional courses, including engineering and law degrees. A few others were pursuing post-graduation courses. At least 48 had done senior secondary and 76 were matriculate. While 156 were under-matric, 74 accused had studied till primary classes. The rest 70 were illiterate. A total of 470 people were arrested for these offences between January 1, 2018 and March 3, 2019. Advertising As many as 138 educated people out of 400 were arrested for the offence of snatching, 126 for vehicle thefts, 102 for miscellaneous thefts and 34 were arrested for house burglaries. The miscellaneous thefts cover the offences of theft of less valuables objects. Three graduates — a BTech in Mechanical Engineering, one law graduate and a BA — were arrested for snatching in the last one week in Chandigarh. Besides this, educated people are also committing other nature of crimes. Six persons arrested on charges of possessing and smuggling narcotics included two women — one was a college student and another holds a masters degree in hotel management course. The remaining four were graduates. Legal and social experts term the growing trend of educated people entering into the world of crime a “matter of concern”. SSP Nilambari Jagdale said, “Although for us, a criminal is a criminal, be it illiterate or well-educated, involvement of well-educated people in criminal activities is indeed a matter of concern.” Experts attribute this growing trend to the “gap between growing aspirations and capabilities to achieve the targets”. They believe that “unemployment and just to kill boredom, for the sake of adventure and thrill” are other factors responsible for this trend. Prof Pramod Kumar, director, Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), said, “The trend shows a mismatch between the aspirations and capability to fulfil these aspirations. We all know people arrested in petty offences commit these crimes for fulfilling either their addiction or small needs of branded clothes, good food, spending money in late night parties etc. Our society is also to be blamed for this mismatch and we are creating this mismatch since school days.” Kumool Abbi, chairperson of PU’s Sociology Department, said, “Unemployment is one of the reasons. And the other reasons are growing influence of social sites, a desire to take the feeling of thrill and adventure, especially among youngsters who belong to well-to-do families.”

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