Incidence of chain snatching, robbery increases in Nashik

Nashik: From Monday to Thursday, a minimum of one incident of chain-snatching and robbery seems to be taking place in the city on a daily basis.

Adding to this, three robberies and one chain snatching was reported on May 17 and 18. As per police record, this month until May 23, there have been at least 21 cases of chain snatching or robberies despite claims made by the police of increased street patrolling, check points and presence of police on city roads.

According to police, from January 1 to April 30, they registered 9 cases of chain snatching. In February and March, there was hardly any case of chain snatching in the city. But in April, five chain snatching incidents were reported in addition to at least seven similar cases till May 23.

Though the police recently arrested a gang of criminals who confessed to have committed 18 chain snatchings in the city, but given the rising trend chain snatchers seem to have become highly active since last month, apart from other criminals robbing people of their cash and articles.

Over the past two years, the city police did an extraordinary work to curb the menace of chain snatching as criminals were caught from different parts of the state and country who committed chain robberies in the city. As a result chain snatching incidents came down significantly.

Going by police record, this year from January 1 to April 30, they registered nine chain snatching cases as against 32 during the same period last year. Apart from this the police also registered 43 other robberies as against 45 registered last year during the same period.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a 58-year-old woman, Vijaya Vispute of Gangapur Road area, was robbed of her gold chain worth Rs25,000 from near her house by two scooter-borne suspects.

A 41-year-old man, Narendra Bacchav of Pathardi Phata, was also robbed of his cellphone worth Rs65,000 by an unidentified man near Dwarka at Thursday noon. “The thief forcibly took out the cellphone from my pocket and escaped from the scene,” Bacchav said.

Though the police claim to have increased police visibility on the road and putting up check points all across the city, things seem to be limited only on paper as robbers are wreaking havoc.