Indian doctor offers $1,000 reward for return of stolen passport, promises not to press charges

An Indian doctor is pleading with the person(s) who burglarised her Ratho Mill apartment on March 1 and stole her passport among other items to return them, promising that she would not press charges.

Dr. Neha Singla is further offering an EC$1,000 reward for the return of her stolen items.

 “I do not wish to press charges, I just want to get my stuff back because it is really important,” she told iWitness News on Sunday.

“Basically, I have no ID now, … and even my work, I am really struggling. I can even increase the reward. If the thief tries to sell the laptop, it wouldn’t amount to this much,” she said.

(Click here to follow our WhatsApp channel.)

Singla’s Ratho Mill apartment was burglarised about five days after she moved in.

She said she later found out from her landlord that the locks had not been changed after the keys had gone missing for a few days last September.

She told iWitness News that the stolen items were in a black shoulder bag that the burglar made off with, presumably after using keys to enter the apartment.

“I am missing everything that was in my bag.  … it had my passport, my documents, my wallet, … my ID cards, my debit cards, my laptop, my hard disc, headphones, my insurance and even my driving permit for St. Vincent.”

Singla told iWitness News that she went to bed around 9:30 p.m. on March 1 but went back into her living room around 10 p.m. for her water bottle before returning to bed.

“Then I woke at 6. I didn’t realise that the bag was missing because I was busy getting ready in my bedroom. I realised it around 8 o’clock when I was ready to get out and I was looking for my bag and I realised that everything was missing and the doors were open.”

She said it was then that she realized that the two doors to the apartment as well as the padlocks on the burglar bars were open.

Singla told iWitness News that the keys were in a side door that she had never opened since moving into the apartment five days earlier.

She said she contacted the landlord, who lives upstairs, but he was not at home. The landlord then contacted the police.

Singla said the police who responded “sympathised” with her and took a statement the next day.

“I feel bad, honestly. I just want my passport back so I can leave from here. I don’t want to be here anymore. And it is really unsafe,” she told iWitness News.

“Since the burglary happened, I haven’t been sleeping at night. Last night, also, my house alarm went off twice. And it had happened when I moved into the house last month… 

“And it feels as if somebody was monitoring the movement because nothing was broken. It seems as if the thieves had keys,” she said, adding that she reported all of this to the police.

She said that the laptop that was stolen is a 2020 MacBook Air, that can be traced.

“The thief opened it on Sunday and I got a notification,” Singla told iWitness News. “I gave them the Mac address for the police to track but I haven’t gotten anything and it’s more than 10 days now.

“It would have connected automatically to a familiar Wi-Fi because I worked with the government. I told the police it could be any Wi-Fi — NRTC (National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission), MHRC (Mental Health Rehabilitation Centre) or anything. But they said they are trying to track but I haven’t got anything,” Singla told iWitness News.

She said that the laptop is locked and, therefore, the content cannot be accessed.  

“I want to leave. I feel unsafe. I am a teacher and I am a consultant psychiatrist. I worked with the government before. And everything, all my teaching material was on my laptop and the hard disc that was inside the bag.

“My passport had my visa. I can’t even go home. Even if I apply to the Indian embassy in Suriname, that is going to take two months. And without a visa, it is not possible to go to India because I had my US visa, UK visa.”

Singla told iWitness News that she had not reported the theft of her passport to the Indian embassy “because I want to put this notification that if somebody can please return my documents I will give them a reward of EC$1,000 so that I can at least go back home.”

She said that the Police Public Relations and Complaint Department had said that they would put her story on social media.

“I went two days ago to find out whether the story was and I realised that they were not going to do it and that’s why I emailed myself,” she said, referring to her decision to contact the media.

Singla told iWitness News that some suspects had been identified but she was not sure if the police had done anything.

“I checked the two CCTV cameras [but they] are not working. So that was never repaired,” she told iWitness News, referring to the cameras at her apartment.

“There was one lead that I got from my landlord — that before I moved in, the previous tenant had reported last September that his keys were missing for some days and somebody came to return those keys and the landlord failed to change the locks after that. I did not know this,” Singla said.

“After two days of brainstorming, he remembered this incident from last year. I gave this information to the police also.”

She continued:

“And even though there was a house alarm, it was going off without any reason and it was not repaired. Last night, it went off twice. And I checked everywhere and I don’t know why it keeps going off. And that’s why I had switched it off for two weeks. Somebody was monitoring my movements to know that the alarm was off.”
She said she is so scared that she is uncomfortable with her telephone number being published.

Singla is asking anyone with information about her passport and other stolen items to contact the Calliaqua Police Station or any other police station in the country.