Mumbai: This festive season, watch out for these top 26 chain-snatchers

As the city is celebrating all festivals in full glory after a gap of two years the menace of chainsnatching has again raised its ugly head Cops said events like the recently concluded Ganeshotsav Bandra fair and upcoming ones like Navratri and Diwali where Mumbaikars come out into the streets in numbers attract snatchers In addition bail given to hardened criminals during the pandemic has also led to the rise in chainsnatching cases midday has procured a list and photos of 26 professional snatchers with criminal histories so that Mumbaikars can bewareThis year the city has seen a 60 per cent increase in chainsnatching incidents in the first eight months And this figure does not include the number of such cases reported during Ganeshotsav or the Bandra fair The cases are likely to rise further during the upcoming festivals like Navratri Diwali as well as the wedding seasonAlso read Maharashtra Teen girl detained woman held for chain snatching in NagpurIn numbersIn the first 8 months of this year there were 143 cases of chain snatching including 12 reported last month in Mumbai Of these only 107 have been solved Cops said efforts are on to solve the rest During the corresponding period last year there were 94 such cases across the city of which 61 were solved by August as per data from the Mumbai PoliceApart from busy roads and festivals railway premises are another playing field for these criminals Data from the Government Railway Police GRP Mumbai showed that 28 cases of chainsnatching took place in the Central Zone and 25 cases were reported in the Western Zone till AugustGRP personnel deployed in the Central region have solved only 14 cases while the Western region GRP cops have solved 18 cases till August As per the official data the total worth of property snatched in Central zone till August is R181 lakh and that in Western Zone is over Rs 1319 lakhThe last two yearrsquos data from GRP Mumbai revealed that 43 and 47 cases of chainsnatching were registered in Central Zone whereas 27 and 19 cases in Western Zone in 2020 and 2021 respectively GRP has asked its personnel to be alert and keep tabs on the 26 snatchers all of whom are involved in multiple cases A GRP officer told midday that some of these criminals were arrested while the rest are wanted Of those arrested some are also out on bailldquoUnder the guidance of Railway Commissioner Quaiser Khalid we have succeeded in reducing incidents of snatching in local trains due to the careful monitoring of GRP officers and continuous patrollingrdquo he addedPreventive measuresAfter the rise of chainsnatching gangs in the early 2010s cops took strategic moves to deal with this menace The efforts included enhancing police presence on roads mapping vulnerable areas in the city application of section 392 robbery of the IPC instead of section 379 theft as it is harder to get bail under robbery charges In addition Mumbai Police had also started slapping the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act MCOCA on snatchers Even cops used to be pulled out for such cases in their jurisdictionThis year Mumbai Police have kept a watch on the movements of historysheeters ldquoGang members generally come from Ambivli and enter the city via toll naka So the documents of all vehicles specially twowheelers at all the entry points of Mumbai including Dahisar toll naka are being checked We have also enhanced the police presence around vulnerable points like parks educational institutions and religious placesrdquo said Somnath Gharge DCP Zone XII Mumbai policeThese moves along with the narrowing of city roads due to the ongoing Metro construction works helped the cops tackle the problem and arrest snatchers However the decision to grant bail to most criminals during the COVID19 pandemic in a bid to decongest prisons poured cold water on cops as the criminals were now out and about Now with the rise in cases again many police officers are unhappySmart consA police officer said ldquoMost members of chain snatching gangs are aged below 35 During the pandemic they have toned up their bodies so they can escape from cops and the publicrdquo He added that the criminals have also become smarter as they now recce areas to check for CCTV camerasldquoThey read newspapers watch crime serials to know the tricks used in police investigations to arrest them In many cases it has been learnt that the criminals try not to repeat the mistakes which led to their arrest Nowadays both bikeborne snatchers and their helpers also wear helmets so that their faces are not captured in CCTV footagerdquo said the officerHe added ldquoMotorcycles play a vital role in the crime But they always use stolen vehicles or use false number plates to dodge police Snatchers also steal highspeed bikes as it aids them to make a quick escaperdquoLast month a team from Kasturba Marg police station arrested two accused including Zafar Irani in a chain snatching case in Ambivli A cop said ldquoZafar would use a stolen superbike to enter Mumbai and disappear from the crime scene in no minutes He would park the getaway bike near a railway station and then take his own bike home After 34 days of observation we nabbed a person named Feroz who was given R1000 by Zafar to take out the getaway bike from the parking area near Ambivli stationrdquo Copsrsquo woeldquoMany criminals including chainsnatchers were released from jail during the pandemic After coming out of jail they honed their skills and worked on new modus operandi to dodge policerdquo said an officer attached to Oshiwara police stationAn officer from Bandra police station said ldquoWe risked our lives to arrest an accused but they were released from the jail during the pandemic Those criminals who were released they did nothing but to become fit and learn more tricksrdquo143No of chainsnatching cases reported till August