BENGALURU: Although the city police have cracked down hard on chain snatchers in the past, and several robbers shot at as well, instances of such crimes continue to rise. In November last year, a notorious gang involved in over 30 cases was busted. Their modus operandi was to target walkers in the morning and evening and rob them while on motorcycles. Several other arrests were made last year, but cases continue to pile up.
While the city police need to ramp up patrolling, some policemen feel even citizens can take some precautions to prevent such incidents from happening. Many such incidents happen in places where people choose to walk on the roads despite footpaths being available. The advice repeated most often being, do not walk on the side of the road and stick to the footpath. “In many areas, people tend to avoid the footpaths and walk on the road instead. While the footpaths are barricaded from the street, it slows down the escape of the thieves and increases their chances of arrest. However, when they are on vehicles, it is very tough,” said a police official from east Bengaluru.
While most of the cases that make it to the media contain visuals captured by CCTV camera footage from houses nearby, there are a lot which occur in dimly lit streets where there are no cameras present.
According to residents living in outer areas of the city like Singasandra and Madivala, the streets are barely safe to walk at night whether or not the person is wearing any jewel. “Bike-borne men try and ride close to you or behind you even as early as 9.30 pm. I have seen purses being snatched away by thieves on bikes. While the police do patrol nearby, it is almost impossible to catch such people when they zoom past you on their bike and snatch your belongings. It is impossible to see them as well while walking on the left side as they pull up from behind you,” says Rishi Bose, a resident of Madivala.
The condition of the city’s footpaths is an often discussed topic and according to citizens, even core areas of the city do not have decent footpaths. “In my area, the footpath is taken over by vendors while the roadside is used by parked cars,” said Abhay CS, a resident of Domlur.
While the city cannot claim to have the perfect facilities for pedestrians, experts say that sticking to footpaths as much as possible would ensure that women don’t fall easy prey to chain-snatchers.
According to BBMP, the situation would improve in the coming days. Mayor Sampath Raj said grants had been given for footpaths in all 198 wards. “We have made provisions and corporators have been given the go ahead for fixing footpaths in their wards,” he said.
Police visibility, neighbourhood watch may be the key
Bengaluru saw an increase in the number of cases last year with 350 cases of chain-snatching being reported across the city till December 11. While chain-snatching has been a constant issue in the city, the figures in 2017, up to mid December, show an increase over the figures for 2015 and 2016. In 2015, 343 chain-snatching cases were reported while this number decreased to 254 in 2016. In the same period, Mumbai, which saw 2,090 cases of chain snatching in 2013, managed to cut it down by a whopping 80 per cent in 2016 with only 445 cases being reported.
The figures till November 2017 were even more encouraging with 152 cases reported. This was made possible by a detailed plan by the city police which worked on identifying 70 hotspots and monitored them closely with repeated patrols, stationary police and in some cases, even bicycle-borne policemen to help bring the crime rate down.
The police also monitored habitual offenders. According to the city-based experts, such planned impact programmes are the need of the hour for Bengaluru as well. Urban expert V Ravichandar told The New Indian Express that it is important to have a visible presence of police. However, he also suggested the strengthening of projects like neighbourhood watch which would instill a sense of responsibility in citizens as well.
