Bike-borne duo on chain-snatching spree; target 5 women between 6.35 am and 8 am

Mysuru: Chain-snatchers are back in action. And this time too, it is the dreaded ‘Black Pulsar’ bike that was spotted in action early this morning at five localities where five women were targeted between 6.30 am and 8 am. A video grab of the chain-snatching incident at one of the places show criminals wearing full-face helmets, white shirts and blue jeans.

So swift was their action that the Police had no clue about their coordinated strike at five places and the cops are now looking at CCTV footages to nail the criminals. After examining all the five incidents, the Police have concluded that the same bike-borne duo was involved in all the five chain-snatching incidents.

The first incident was reported from Vidyaranyapuram Police Station limits at around 6.35 am. The bike-borne duo targeted 60-year-old Jayamma who was walking on Vidyaranyapuram Link Road along with another woman.

Jayamma was on her regular morning walk when the miscreants grabbed her chain and rode away. She lost her gold chain that weighed 22 grams.

The second incident was also reported from Vidyaranyapuram Police limits where 65-year-old Jayalakshmi’s 12-gram gold chain was snatched as she was walking alone on Akkamahadevi Road at 6.45 am.  

After leaving Vidyaranyapuram, the chain-snatchers entered Nazarbad Police limits that is over 3 kms from the place where the second incident took place.

At 6.55 am, they targeted 79-year-old B. Suganadevi near Karaga Temple in Ittigegud and snatched her gold chain weighing 80 grams. The victim was walking towards a milk booth near her house to buy milk. This incident took place within a few minutes of Garuda Police patrol vehicle leaving the area.

The Karaga Temple in Ittigegud is a densely populated area in city and snatching a chain in such an area is seen as a new strategy by the chain-snatchers as it makes it very difficult for the Police to chase them and catch them. Interestingly, even though it was a crowded area, none of the public made an attempt to chase the bike-borne miscreants. It may be recalled that earlier chain-snatchers used to target victims in sparsely populated areas.

After snatching in Nazarbad Police limits, the bike-borne criminals next moved into V.V. Puram Police Station limits at around 7 am where they snatched the mangalsutra weighing 7 grams from 55-year-old Gayathri Somasekhar. The victim had come out of her house to put rangoli at Gokulam 3rd Stage near Subramanya Temple on KRS Road. It is reported that Gayathri was to leave for Tirupati after her morning ritual of putting rangoli in front of the house.

After taking an hour’s break and doing a recce of the areas, the criminals next entered Narasimharaja Police limits at Unnatinagar at 8 am and snatched the gold chain from 80-year-old Lalithamma weighing 40 grams. The victim was on her regular morning walk.

In the meanwhile, the Police could not react soon enough to deploy patrol vehicles everywhere.

But senior Police officials conducted an emergency meeting later in the morning and alerted respective Police Station Officers to check suspicious bike riders at major roads in the city.

The Police have also collected CCTV footage from houses around the roads were the incidents have occurred in order to gather clues to nab the culprits.  

They also appealed to women not to venture out of their houses displaying gold ornaments. Speaking to Star of Mysore, City Police Commissioner K.T. Balakrishna said that he has given instructions to all officers and staff to intensify search operation to nab the criminals.