AA Edit | Safe at home? A wake-up call
The burglary attempt at Saif Ali Khan’s duplex apartment in Mumbai and the events that followed as the actor bravely intervened to protect his son and household help may have sent a shiver down the spines of people. If the security of a luxury apartment complex in an upscale neighbourhood of Mumbai can be breached, imagine the state of fear among those who live in far less secure environments at night when the security detail is probably an untrained person just making a living.
The fact, however, is that cinema celebrities, who are perceived as rich people, may have greater reasons to secure their homes, both electronically and with personnel. Also, the incident may not have been a random walk-in so much as a targeted entry with an aim that only any suspects could reveal as the police interrogate them. Nothing has been ruled out yet, including a sinister gangland plot to target a well-known actor.
There cannot still be much to a predictable Opposition charge that this break-in reflects a breakdown of law and order in the state or in the Maximum City known for buzzing human activity well into the small hours when most people would only be resting after a daytime full of activity. The probe should reveal what the suspect had in mind when he accessed this actor’s apartment after having said to have cased out the place in reconnaissance runs earlier.
Any state or country can offer people a secure environment in which people have no need to stealthily walk in on people at night in their residences with an intention to rob them. Even the humblest people will have, besides belongings they may believe precious, also some amount of jewellery and gold at homes that can be an easy target for burglars.
It is only the politician, with his bloated image of importance, who can command full scale security with armed guards. Everyone else must fend for themselves, which the rich do on a bigger scale, but the rest can only bolt the door and hope to get their beauty sleep every night. The cinema celebrities are the ones who may have to worry more as they seem to have a way of attracting attention, some of it unwanted as in this break-in that led to serious physical harm to the celebrity.