Chain-snatching at public urinal

Chain-snatching incidents are increasing by the day. On Thursday night,an unidentified robber chose the most unlikely,yet vulnerable,spot for the crime a public urinal The victim,Pravin Javaharlal Kankariya,30,was in the urinal when the robber pointed a shaving blade at him,threatened to cut his face,snatched his gold chain worth Rs 30,000 and fled.

Chain-snatching incidents are increasing by the day. On Thursday night,an unidentified robber chose the most unlikely,yet vulnerable,spot for the crime a public urinal The victim,Pravin Javaharlal Kankariya,30,was in the urinal when the robber pointed a shaving blade at him,threatened to cut his face,snatched his gold chain worth Rs 30,000 and fled.

Kankariya,a dry fruit seller and resident of Nana Peth,lodged a complaint with the Bundgarden police. He said in his complaint that he was urinating at the public urinal in front of the Central Building around 11.15 pm on Thursday when the incident occurred.

Police sub inspector and investigating officer Ashok Randive said,Kankariya was going home on his two-wheeler. He took a paan at Sadhu Vaswani chowk and stopped near the urinal. He could not even move when the robber pointed a blade at him. He panicked and did not chase the robber. He says the robber was aged around 30 and spoke Hindi. We have shown photographs of history-sheeters to the complainant,but he has not identified anyone. We would soon prepare a sketch.

Police said this was a case of robbery and not a regular chain-snatching incident. Sources,however,said the criminals might have taken up the new modus operandi following an extensive drive against chain-snatchers.

On Monday,two unidentified motorcycle-borne youths had snatched the chain of woman vending milk at her small shop in Shaniwar Peth. Two young men had gone to the shop of Mandakaini Shrikant Damle (50),a resident of Suvarna Shilpa apartment in Shanivar Peth,asking for chocolates and fled with her chain when she bent down for giving them the balance amount.

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories