Bunty Chor's mental check-up to be videographed

A mental health check-up of the notorious "Bunty Chor", arrested from Pune early this year after a burglary in the house of an NRI businessman in Kerala, will be videographed, a court here said.

Bunty Chor is currently lodged in a mental hospital in the Kerala capital. The direction to videograph the medical procedure was issued by Principal Assistant Session Judge Vincent Charly after the State Mental Hospital here submitted a petition to this effect.

Early this month, Bunty Chor's counsel asked that his client be moved to the Mental Hospital, as his peculiar mental state was the cause of criminal prowess.

Following that request from his counsel, Bunty Chor, involved in over 500 burglaries across the country, was moved to the mental hospital.

Bunty Chor's real name is Devinder Singh. The 43-year-old made a name as "Bunty Chor", as he was responsible for several successful robberies, many of which were technology-assisted, across the country.

Bunty reportedly broke into the high-security house of Gulf-based NRI businessman Venugopalan Nair here Jan 21 this year, after deactivating surveillance devices. He then drove off with a sports utility vehicle (SUV) worth Rs.28 lakh, a laptop and two mobile phones from the businessman's house.

A week later, he was arrested in Pune after a receptionist at a hotel identified him and tipped police off.

He was then brought to the Kerala capital, where he has been cooling his heels in jail.

After his arrest, while being taken to a court in March this year, he told waiting journalists that he was an incarnation of Lord Krishna.

"I am the media of Lord Krishna. This is my fifth avatar. My first one was in the US, then the UK, and then France, Hungary and now in India," he said.

Soon after his dramatic robbery of January this year, he became a household name in Kerala after nearly a dozen TV channels played up his crime, and broadcast stories of his colourful past.

Early this month, a Malayalam film called "Bunty Chor" released. Needless to say, the lead character bears a close resemblance to the real-life Bunty.