The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Snatchers strike at will Law and order

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Saturday, Feb 16, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Snatchers strike at will Law and order

Chain snatchings of late have have seen a sharp rise in city, writes Marri Ramu

Chain snatchers are rising like a Phoenix, despite the police boasting of catching some of them now and then.

On a single day on Saturday last, they struck at 13 places - five in Saroornagar alone - in and around the city. Even as the Cyberabad and the Hyderabad police woke up and held meetings on how to contain the offences, the snatchers continued to strike at will in the next seven days.

All that the law-enforcers could do is narrow down on two persons and confirm involvement of a gang using a Black Pulsar motorcycle. Chain snatchings used to be stray incidents seven years ago. Over a period of time, they have become routine and are now rampant.

Alarming rise

When 40 chain snatchings were reported in two months in 2001, women’s associations took out rallies and the police undertook a campaign appealing to them to take precautions like not to walk on lonely roads. Forty offences in two months translate to 240 a year on an average.

But the figures of 787 chain snatchings in 2007 indicate the police failure to contain the crime.

The pattern of snatchings suggests that most of them are committed on internal roads of colonies rather than trunk routes and from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Chain snatchings are not frequently reported in the old city, except in Kanchanbagh and Santoshnagar areas that have many colonies. Most of the places where the offenders strike are poorly lit and policed.

It was found that whenever a snatching incident was reported, mobile police patrol parties like Blue Colts and Rakshaks of the local police station were on the main routes. Heavy workload and using these mobile parties to provide security for VIP movement, processions and other works is decreasing presence of the police on interior lanes.

If this is emboldening the offenders, the poor conditions of the vehicles used by the police parties is turning out to be another restraint to catch the offender even after receiving an alert.

Tracking down the accused persons based on the vehicle number is leading the police nowhere as in several cases the offenders are using stolen vehicles by affixing fictitious number plates. Ensuring that painters don’t write a number plate without verifying the vehicle documents is a solution but the police are yet to react on this front.

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