With more than 450 incidents of chain snatching by the bike-borne assailants in Hyderabad and Cyberabad this year itself, police have decided to hit back with force.
Police in Autonagar area of Cyberabad on Monday opened fire at a chain snatcher after he unsuccessfully attempted to snatch a gold chain off a woman’s neck.
As she shouted for help, alert anti-snatching team chased the snatcher and asked him to stop his bike. When he refused to comply, a police man opened fire at him.
The assailant however managed to flee from the scene and a cordon and search operation was on.
The incident occurred under the Vanasthalipuram Police Station where two chain snatchers were nabbed over the weekend after they got stuck in a traffic jam.
Police said the gang of three riding a Pulsar bike attacked a couple outside a theater and snatched the chain off lady’s neck. As the couple raised an alarm some local people chased the gang. As there was a massive traffic jam at the nearby junction the gang could not escape.
Hyderabad Police has deployed 55 armed anti-chain snatching teams to only “spot and intercept” chain snatchers but they have been empowered to fire on the snatchers, if they attack the cops.
While the people nabbed the two snatchers, another managed to flee. After
thrashing the gang-members people handed them over to the police.
Cyberabad Police Commissioner C V Anand said that 55 special anti-snatching teams of the police were deployed. These trained specially trained by the professional bikers in chasing their targets were roaming around the vulnerable spots. “They are moving just like the chainsnatchers do; keeping any eye on the suspects as well as the possible victims to intervene”, he said.
One such team was involved in Monday’s incident of firing and foiling the attack.
Police say that professional gangs of chain snatchers from other States were behind the spate of the crime. Two such gangs from Maharashtra involved in 30 chain snatching incidents were nabbed by the city police and search was on for the others.