Mumbai: After the era of the underworld, gang wars and organised crime, there is one crime that has been troubling Mumbai Police for the last several years and it was the menace of chain snatching. However, Mumbai Police’s continuous efforts seem to have worked to curb this rampant menace, if recent figures are to be believed. According to the recently revealed data through an RTI query, it shows the number of chain snatchings have dropped drastically—92%. In 2013, Mumbai witnessed 2,090 such cases and in 2018, this figure dropped to 171. “While it is true incidents of chain snatching have reduced by 92%, but still, last year, we saw 171 cases. This number should go down further,” said RTI activist Shakeel Ahmed.
“Apart from this figure, the detection rate and amount of property recovered in chain snatching cases is still far low. In the last six years, Rs35.15 crore worth of property was stolen in 5,193 cases, of which only 2,338 cases have been solved so far and just 20 per cent of stolen items recovered. Police should do something about this,” added Ahmed.
Police have been cracking down heavily to curb this crime. A cop said, “Some years ago, chain snatching was at its peak. To bring it under control, we took stringent steps, like identifying chain-snatching spots and undertook dawn-to-dusk patrols. We planted our man-in-uniform round the clock.” “Jaffer Chikna was a notorious chain-snatcher, who ran his own gang. 7-8 men worked for him. After arresting Jaffer in 2017, we pressed for charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), because of which he continues to be in jail. We also had continuous nakabandis at the city’s entry and exit points,” he added.
- SACHIN GAAD
