Fallout Of Demonetization: House Robberies Have Dropped To Zero In Pune

While ordinary Indians are braving long queues at ATMs after government’s demonetization drive, there’s a group that’s even worse affected – robbers.

In the last five days, the Pune police have not recorded a single house break-in in the city and Pimpri Chinchwad. Before the demonization measures were announced, 5-6 daily cases of house break-ins used to be recorded at each of the region’s 39 police stations. 

Since 8th November, that number has dropped to zero.

 

It’s likely that thieves used to target large volumes of cash stashed in homes, and they would’ve been stored as Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes. With the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes being declared worthless overnight, thieves have no incentive to break into houses and steal them. 

Indeed, no thief would want large quantities of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes on their hands given the current scenario. Ordinary Indians are having a hard enough time replacing their Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes; no thief is going to want to have to show up at a bank with large bags of notes and risk getting arrested.

While the government had intended the scheme to catch fat-cats with millions stashed in their homes, looks like it’s also targeting petty crimes across the country.