HYDERABAD: A 40-year-old woman in Satyanagar colony in Barkatpura succumbed to injuries seven days after she was pulled down from a moving bike by a chain snatcher. The shocking incident took place on July 17 at about 3.30 p.m. at the entrance of OU Law College. The deceased along with her son Sanjay were returning home from State Bank of Hyderabad, Lalaguda branch.
Osmania University Police, who are investigating the case, said that the chain snatcher might have been following the deceased from the moment they left the branch. The chain snatching case is now being treated as a murder case, said police. “Not many people were around when the incident occurred. People thought it was an accident. Our teams rushed to different hospitals to find out the victim and then it came to our notice that it was a case of chain snatching,” said Ashok Reddy, inspector, OU Police.
The duo was on way to from Lalaguda to Barkatpura via Osmania University campus road on a red Suzuki Access motor bike. The complainant, Sanjay, has informed Police that the snatcher succeeded in taking away 1.5 tola gold chain of his mother. According to the complainant, the snatcher pulled the chain as he slowed down the bike ahead of a speed breaker in front of the Law College. While, he said, his mother fell down hurting her head, the chain snatcher sped away towards the OU girls hostel on his bike. He said that no one was around at the time of incident. Soon after the incident, Sumitra was first taken to the nearby Andhra Mahila Sabha hospital.
Later, she was referred to a private neuro-specialty hospital in Kachiguda owing to head injuries. She passed away on the Friday night. The post mortem was conducted at Gandhi Hospital on Saturday. The victim used to work as an attendant in a pre-school near Barkatpura while as her husband Srihari is as an attendant at National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Tarnaka. The couple has two sons, Vamshi (25), Sanjay(22) and a daughter Komal(20). All three are college students. Additional Commissioner (Crimes) Swathi Lakra, said, “We have taken this incident very seriously. We have been concentrating on snatchers and have been curb the crime to a big extent.” According to her, the city Police has nabbed interstate chain snatching gangs and even an Irani gang recently. “We are detaining offenders of repeat cases under PD Act too. But, it is extremely unfortunate a death has occurred in a chain snatching incident,” she added. According to Police, there is no CCTV footage available. “Due to renovation work at the Police Station, the CCTV cameras outside the station facing the roads are not in operation,” added C Laxminarayana, ACP.
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