India tour of South Africa 2013-14: Cricket photographer robbed in South Africa

Cricket photographer robbed in South Africa

By Derek Abraham

Durban: Dec 8, 2013

You may have heard horrific stories of mugging and armed robbery in South Africa, but this one’s on a different level.

Narendra Kumar, 31, a New Delhi-based photographer who is here to cover the Indian cricket team’s tour, got the shock of his life on Saturday when he discovered that his high-end cameras and lenses, collectively worth Rs15 lakh, were missing from the boot of the bus which took him from Johannesburg to Durban.

“I boarded an Intercape bus from Johannesburg at 10pm on Friday. The bus halted around 2am.

All of us stepped out for refreshments. The bus then stopped at Pietermaritzburg around 5am, where a few passengers alighted, before reaching Durban at 6am,” said the Cricket Today lensman who filed a complaint with the transport company as well as the local police station at 8.30am.
“The moment the driver and helper opened the boot of the double-decker bus, I realised my bag was missing,” he said.

Kumar then confronted the duo only to be told that they would get back to him. “I haven’t received any call from Intercape yet. All they gave me was a photo copy of the complaint I filed at their Durban bus depot office,” he said.

The cops have filed an FIR, but there has been no headway since. No arrests have been made.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) officials have promised to help. So has Chetan Desai, the Indian team’s manager.

(The writer is Principal Correspondent at DNA, where the above article first appeared)