Be alert when you come on to the road. Observe the people moving around you. Chain-snatchers are on the prowl and may attack you any time.
Snatchers are targeting women travelling on bikes and pedestrians in isolated places and cases have been reported in Guntur, East and West Godavari, Prakasam, Nellore and other districts. However, police say that there is a decline in chain-snatching incidents when compared with the last few years.
Intensified police patrolling, monitoring Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS), installation of Closed Circuit Televisions (CCTNs) and using advanced technology for prevention and detection of snatching cases have reduced the number of cases, the police said.
Students held
Involvement of graduate, postgraduate, professional college students and even some minors in chain-snatching incidents have shocked the police. There is a rise in students getting arrested in such cases.
Some students allegedly addicted to vices are resorting to chain-snatching for easy money. After the crime, the accused are mortgaging the booty with a pawnbroker or with a mortgage firm to get cash and are leading a lavish life.
“We request parents to keep a watch on the movements of their wards. Students who are addicted to alcohol, smoking and leading a lavish lifestyle, are resorting to crimes and are ruining their careers,” an investigation officer said.
If this is so, some offenders are taking to chain-snatching as their livelihood. The accused are committing offences alone and some are forming gangs and sharing the booty.
“Offenders are striking at a couple of places in either Andhra Pradesh or Telangana and escaping to remote places. After exchanging the valuables for cash, they are maintaining their families. Not only chain-snatching, in the process the accused are lifting bikes and resorting to burglaries and thefts if the police vigil is not high on roads,” a senior police officer observed.
Some pawnbrokers and mortgage companies are offering cash for the jewellery whatever they deposit with them and are perpetrating the crime. The police say private money lenders and gold mortgaging firms are not following procedures while giving loans for jewellery deposited.
Taking this as an advantage, chain-snatchers are crediting booty with private money lenders and finance companies.
“Persons or the companies involved in accepting jewellery for mortgage and money lending businesses should insist on the identity of the customer, collect residential address, Aadhaar and phone number, guarantor and take their thumb impression. If a person is repeatedly visiting the pawnbroker they should alert the police, failing which the receiver can be booked as per law,” a Central Crime Station officer said.
Speaking to The Hindu , Vijayawada Police Commissioner D. Gautam Sawang said the police are planning to install more CCTVs at major junctions in the city to prevent chain-snatching incidents. At present, 700 surveillance cameras are installed in the city, he said.
“By identifying the places through Global Positioning System (GPS), we installed CCTVs, which are giving good results. Proposals have been sent for arranging more cameras at about 2,000 more points,” the Police Commissioner explained.
The police are planning to organise meetings in educational institutions and explain to the students the consequences if involved in criminal cases. Meeting are also proposed with pawnbrokers and private finance firms.
“We will step up intelligence at colleges to identify students moving with anti-social elements. We request the parents to keep a watch on their children and friends,” Mr. Sawang said.
Modus Operandi ( to go as box)
The modus operandi of the offenders include visiting different places to conduct ‘recce’, identify the isolated places, roads and lanes and target women walking or even those on bikes. After committing the offence, the accused escape to neighbouring districts or neighbouring State.
The accused will not come back to the place where he resorted to the snatching for a few months, but will continue committing offences in other places. In many cases, the offenders arrested in one case were wanted in many cases registered in different police stations, according to a police officer.
