Chain-snatchers attack 12 women in three hours

Police suspects that an organised gang of snatchers from Maharashtra might have arrived in Hyderabad and is striking at different parts of the city with stolen bikes. The gang is operating by splitting into two or three teams and uses fake number plates, said higher officials.

At Filmnagar in Jubilee Hills, the gang struck twice in less than five minutes.

The first victim, Ms K. Saraswathi, 66, kin of former minister Mandava Venkateswara Rao, had come to the Venkateswara Temple in the morning. After completing her prayers, she was waiting on the road for her car to arrive when two men on a bike snatched her 50 gm gold chain. She sustained minor injuries as she fell on the road. The incident occurred at around 9.20 am.

Five minutes later and less than 300 meters away, another woman, Ms N. Malleswari, 30, a housemaid, was targeted by the same gang. “The duo had covered their faces, one had a helmet on and the other with a kerchief. They came on a black Honda Unicorn bike,” said sub inspector of Jubilee Hills D. Suresh. The same gang is suspected to have struck a posh colony in Sanathnagar a little later.

“The victim was walking along the road at Czech Colony when the men came from the opposite side and snatched her chain,” said Sanathnagar police inspector K. Sudershan Reddy. After a few minutes, the same men targeted a woman in a colony in Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar, less than a kilometer away. After 10 am, two victims in different colonies at KPHB were targeted by another gang. These men were on a black Pulsar bike. They targeted another women in Kukatpally in less than 10 minutes.

By 11 am, another two snatchings were reported, this time in Domalguda and Ashoknagar. Special teams from both Cyberabad and Hyderabad have started a manhunt for the gang. Kukatpally ACP N. Sanjeev Rao said, “By analysing CCTV footage, it looks like they are professional gangs from Maharashtra.”