South Chennai tops in chain snatching cases

St Thomas Mount police district, which covers major parts of south Chennai, tops the list with 99 incidents of chain snatchings, while Flower Bazaar district recorded 11 cases - the minimum number of incidents, reveals the data. 

Police records also show that a total of 75 per cent cases were detected and 66 per cent of the total gold chains lost had been recovered from the suspects during the same period. “We have recovered properties worth Rs 1.03 crore after detecting 429 of the total 570 cases,” a police officer noted.

The detection rate is the lowest in Adyar with just 44 per cent. Flower Bazaar tops the detection list with the cracking of 10 cases out of the reported 11 cases. 

When asked about the complaints of non-recording of chain snatching and mobile snatching incidents in the city, a senior police officer pointed out that the standing instruction to all police stations is to register an FIR on all such cases. 

After the Commissioner issued instructions, the city police stations have started booking the snatching suspects under the IPC section 390 for robbery from September. In the three months, as many as 34 cases, including 23 mobile snatching incidents, have been booked under this Section, the officer said. 

The city police had been installing more number of CCTV cameras with the help of the public in a number of neighbourhoods with a hope that such cameras might act as a deterrent to perpetrators of crimes. Police have also been making the offenders to sign ‘peace’ bonds. As many as 67 people arrested for chain snatching cases were also sent to jail after slapping the Goondas Act.