Jamshedpur: Incidents of conmen diverting the attention of the public and making away with their gold chains and bags containing cash and valuables have been on the rise in the city. Despite efforts to curb the incidents by the police the situation remain the same.
Though such incidents are frequently occurring in various parts of the city, the police have not able to control the situation.
People coming out of banks after withdrawing money have been the victims in a majority of the cases.
Notably, earlier on September 23 afternoon, two bike-borne criminals had snatched away a gold-chain from the neck of Meena Mohan while she was returning home from DBMS English School where she is a member of management committee.
A majority of snatching incidents have taken place during afternoon and late evening hours when it is difficult to identify snatchers. Snatchers grab the victims from the back and snatch their chains, earrings and other ornaments and escape from the scene within seconds. They target women who pass through deserted areas.
Conmen have been adopting different tricks to divert the attention of the public. In one such snatching incident recently two youths were arrested for allegedly picking up a bag of a young woman at the crossing of the Kadma-Sonari Link Road under Bistupur police station area.
“Some motorcycle-borne youths have sparked terror with a series of snatching and loot incidents. However, culprits in most of the cases are still at large. Some victims report the cases to the police and try to give a description of the culprit, but a good amount of cases are not reported, as the victims want to avoid the long and tedious legal procedures at police stations and the court as well,” said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.
Notably, this was one of the several incidents that took place on that road within one month.
In earlier occasion, two bike-borne criminals picked up the money-purse of a woman while she was riding a scooty with her son sitting as pillion rider. What was common in this was that both the incidents took place in the broad-day-light.
In the wake of sudden surge observed in the snatching cases, especially amongst the women, residents of the city are perturbed over the issue from the past few weeks. More than five snatching incidents have been reported in the past two months.
According to police sources, most of the youths involved in the incidents of chain or purse snatching are drug addicts. They adopt different types of modus operandi — either a youth snatches the purse or a chain in lonely places, or engages the victim in a conversation and commit the crime.