Snatching cases shock city, but cops book them as thefts

The two CCTV footages that emerged in the last 24 hours shocked the city after these visuals went viral on social media on Sunday. On Sunday morning, 52-year-old Menaka Venkatesan of Natarajan Street, Washermanpet, who was in Arumbakkam to attend a function in the family, became a victim of two bike-borne chain-snatchers. 

After grabbing her two gold chains, weighing over 10 sovereigns, the snatcher sitting pillion dragged Menaka, who fell on the road, till he got hold of the chains. The footage shows them snatching her chain from behind, making her fall down, and then being dragged. But the CMBT police FIR has recorded it only as a theft case under section 379 of the IPC, and not robbery under section 392. 

In the other case, the victim Jayasree (57) was walking with her husband Ashok Kumar in Kundrathur on Saturday evening when she came under attack. The visual shows the youth pulling her gold chain, making her lose balance and fall on to the road. 

Though she resisted, the boy dragged her to a few feet and managed to get the chain in hand. Then, he ran away from the spot and got on the bike that was waiting for him, even before a shocked Ashok and other onlookers could react. In both cases, despite the nature of the offense, the cases filed were for theft. Robbery is a much serious offense that attracts imprisonment up to 10 years, while theft is relatively a lenient one with only a maximum of three years in prison.