The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Mobile snatcher gang alert!

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Wednesday, Mar 11, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Mobile snatcher gang alert!

Yogendra Kalavalapalli

HYDERABAD: On Thursday last, K.V. Sivaram, a faculty at a computer institute, was on his way to a bus stop after catching up with a friend in Banjara Hills. Bored, he took out his Nokia N95 and began chitchatting as he passed through a dimly-lit lane near City Centre mall.

Suddenly out of nowhere, two scooter-borne youth approached him from behind, snatched his mobile even as he was talking and sped away. “It all happened in a flash,” Mr. Sivaram recollects the incident.

By the time he gathered his wits and chased the scooter till the main road, the offenders were nowhere to be seen. “A motorist who was passing-by offered me a lift to chase them but by then they were long gone,” he says.

The lighting in the street was too dim for him to notice their faces or take down the vehicle registration number. “Besides the number plate was placed too low giving no scope to see it,” Mr. Sivaram remarks.

This is not an isolated incident. According to R.S. Praveen Kumar, DCP (Detective) mobile snatching incidents are reported regularly and are prevalent for sometime now. T. Kranti Kiran, a software engineer says, “Many of my friends’ narrated similar experiences during a discussion on cell phone snatching.”

The gang(s) seems to have picked up the modus operandi of the ‘Kaala Yamaha’ gang, notorious for a series of chain snatchings five years ago. The newer offenders are implementing similar tactics by catching off guard unsuspecting mobile phone users.

A few months back, M. Sriram, a software engineer was walking on the Panjagutta-Khairatabad stretch at 10.30 p.m. when two youth on a scooter came in the opposite direction and snatched his mobile even as he was talking over the phone.

On Saturday night at 11 p.m., Uma Maheswara Rao, a college student took out his cell phone to check on the time when two youth on Pulsar motorcycle grabbed it, even though he was holding the phone with both his hands. “The pillion rider just pulled it away from my grip and I had no choice but to give in as they were driving at high speed,” he told this reporter who was witness to the incident.

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