Snatching cases up by 36% in a year: RTI

The 285 valuables snatched in 2022 was between January 1 and November 30. Of this, 78 per cent (224) of the objects were cell phones and remaining were bags, watches, gold chains, etc.

In 2021, there were 125 cell phones among the 184 objects which were snatched. In 2020, 146 valuables were snatched, out of which 101 were cell phones. It appears that South-West police division comprising police stations of Sectors 36 and 39 and Maloya are the most affected in 2022.

The least number of incidents were reported near the North-East police division comprising Mani Majra, Mauli Jagran and IT Park police stations.

Recently, the Modus Operandi Branch (MoB) of Chandigarh police, which keeps a tab on the ways in which criminals operate, told senior officers that even youths without any criminal background have been picking-up crimes like snatching at a rapid pace.

According to the RTI, in 2022, a total of 55 valuables were snatched in the South division, comprising Sectors 31, 34 and 49 police stations, out of which 45 were cell phones. In the South West division, 85 of the 98 valuables were cell phones.

In the East sub-division, there were 38 cell phones in the 52 snatched valuables. In the Central division comprising the police stations at Sectors 17, 11, 3, and Sarangpur, 62 valuables were snatched. A total of 21 valuables including 16 cell phones were snatched in the North-East sub division.

A police officer said, “Indeed, there has been a rise in cases of snatching but the number of cases we have worked out has also gone up. In many of cases, we found the snatched cell phone abandoned after a period of time. We also observed that snatchers also dismantle the cell phone and sell it as parts in the old market”.

RK Garg of Sector 27, who procured the information, said, “There are many instances when the snatched cell phones were recovered but these are still lying at the police station. The recovered cell phones should be returned to its
owners”.