After lying low for a few months, chain-snatchers are back on the prowl in the city, with a number of incidents being reported over the last few weeks.
In a fresh case of chain snatching, two bike-borne criminals snatched away a gold-chain from the neck of an elderly woman at Bara area in Agrico under Sidhgora police station area early Wednesday morning.
The victim Nirmala Devi was plucking flowers at the compound of the Bara flat area, where Tata Steel employees stays with their families.
‘I am really shocked the way the incident took place. The two bike-borne youths came and as I was busy in plucking flower, one of them suddenly put his hand on my neck and snatched away. At first I could not understand what happened, but when next moment I realised that they had taken away my chain,’ said the elderly woman while talking to the newsmen.
The gold chain that the criminals snatched away weighed 20 grams and worth over Rs60,000. The victim’s son N Mohapatra who is a Tata Steel employee had tried to search for the chain-snatchers by taking help of a couple of neighbours, but he could not see anyone as such.
Mohapatra along with some of his neighbours went over to Sidhgora police station and lodged an FIR with the police station, leading the officer-in-charge, Sidhgora thana to visit the spot and inspected the scene and came back.
Officer-in-charge, Sidhgora thana, RD Singh confirmed about the chain-snatching incident. ‘We are investigating the incident. We are also scanning the CCTV camera installed on some spots leading to the Bara Flat area for detecting the two bike-borne criminals who had been moving around 5.20 am. We expect the criminals will be nabbed soon,’ said Singh.
Notably, the Bara Flat area where the incident of chain-snatching took place is just 1 km away from the residence of chief minister Raghubar Das, where special police parties remain vigilant round the clock.
In most cases, youngsters targeted women in quiet lanes in the evening hours or early morning. A majority of chain snatching incidents have taken place during afternoon and late evening hours when it is difficult to identify snatchers. Snatchers grab the victims from the back and snatch their chains, earrings and other ornaments and escape from the scene within seconds. They target women who pass through deserted areas.