Mumbai: The Thane Police claim to have solved 17 cases of chain snatching with the arrest of two gangs of chain snatchers. One of them is headed an accused wanted under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, police said on Saturday. They said jewellery worth ₹8.27 lakh has been recovered from the accused in the operation conducted over a week.
DCP (Zone I) D.S. Swami said the first gang was arrested on Monday by the Anti-Robbery Cell, supervised by him. “Our officers were working on tracing and apprehending the accused responsible for several offences in Thane city. They were checking on the movements of history-sheeters when they received a tip-off about an accused fleeing to Ajmer, Rajasthan. A team was sent to Ajmer. After 10 days of investigation, the accused, identified as Sarfaraz Baig, was arrested with four accomplices.”
Mr. Swami said interrogation of the accused led to the detection of six chain snatching cases registered with Kalwa police station and one each with Rabodi and Naupada police stations. Gold jewellery worth ₹4.35 lakh was recovered from them. Mr. Baig allegedly has a long history of chain snatching, and has been charged under MCOCA after being repeatedly arrested and charge-sheeted.
Kalwa gang busted
The second gang was busted by police in Kalwa on Wednesday following the arrest of history-sheeter Rizwan Sheikh, who was allegedly trying to flee after snatching a chain in the area. He was caught by a patrolling unit who saw him in the act and gave chase.
Based on his interrogation, police arrested his accomplice, Ali Sheikh, and recovered stolen jewellery worth ₹3.93 lakh from the duo. Mr. Swami said, “The accused were found to be responsible for four cases of chain snatching each at Kalwa and Naupada police stations, and one with Shil Daighar police station.”
Once regarded as a petty crime, chain snatching has grown into one of the biggest and most frequent street crimes in Mumbai and Thane, with thousands of cases being registered every year. Police say inter-State gangs have formed, which travel to various cities and spend a few days committing crimes before returning home to sell the booty. This makes it hard for the police to apprehend them. Around five years ago, police began invoking MCOCA wherever applicable in chain snatching cases. Sentencing under MCOCA is harsher and makes it difficult for the accused to secure bail.
