Hyderabad: Lurking chain snatchers terrify the residents of Hyderabad than any other criminals. Police officials say that this is due to the increased frequency and visibility of the chain snatching offences in most parts of the city. In 2013, around 1,000 victims were targeted by the chain snatchers on the city’s outskirts. This year around 500 cases of chain snatchings have been reported from the city.
N. Meena Kumari, a 27-year-old receptionist at a private company, who was the victim of a chain snatcher in Kukatpally four months ago, is still afraid to walk outside wearing gold ornaments. “When the criminal grabbed my chain, I fell on the ground and suffered injuries on my face and head. I also suffered another injury on my neck,” she said narrating how the two snatchers took away her 30 gram gold chain.
In Kukatpally, Chandanagar, LB Nagar, Rajendranagar and in several other places, chain snatching is a daily affair, and women can never trust strangers on bikes asking for directions. “In most cases, the bikers stop near women walking alone on the pretext of asking directions about addresses, and snatch the chain quickly,” said a woman police officer from Cyberabad, who was deployed on the ground in mufti in attempt to nab the chain snatchers.
Cyberabad police say that Siva, who was killed in a police encounter, used to get down from the bike and approach lonely woman with an address slip.
When the woman starts telling the direction, he would snatch the chain, mount his bike and escape from the spot. Cyberabad police had launched operations with women cops in mufti wearing ornaments to trap the chain snatchers. However, the number of cases still kept going up. Tracking down the criminals had become difficult for the cops as they and their friends used to keep changing houses frequently.
