Grab and Run - focusses on the growing incidences of chain-snatching.

The 30 million strong Indian diaspora has one common factor binding it in all the continents – the love of gold. U.S.A has nearly 3.4 million Indians and ask the police authorities in Fremont area of San Francisco – the most NRI crowded state in the country, and they will sigh and tell you that all the bank/ street robbers know that Indian women wear real gold and have no compunctions in showing it off. Ask the police in Birmingham in Britain (with 1.4 million NRIs) and they confirm that Indian women are the favourite victims of chain snatching.

If this is the condition in countries where the policing system is much better than India, then what about India? Well, we have more than 400 cities with a population of more than one lakh and Mumbai, the biggest of them with 12 million, had as many as 1,066 chain-snatchings reported from January, 2015 to April 3, 2016.

Can the Indian police and public do anything about this menace? So far the answer is no. But many studies or solutions have been mooted in many of the police conferences. The only good solution seems to be the one coming from the former Mumbai Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) P. Harishekaran. He advised the affected ladies, “Most women try to hold on to their gold chains. But we advise them to grab the collar or shirt of the chain snatcher instead, and scream for help. Most chain-snatchers are on motorcycles. If women grab the shirt, he will lose his balance and fall.” As against this, we must, however, remember that the offenders are quite ruthless and can stab the lady in question with knives.

Another solution came from the Thane Commissioner of Police K.P. Raghuvanshi, who managed to bring down the incidents by a whopping 50 per cent by booking the culprits for robbery under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), which not only metes out strong punishments for the offenders but also prevents them from coming out on bail for at least a year.
According to the police, pickpockets are increasingly switching to chain snatching these days, as pick pocketing and mobile thefts are no longer considered lucrative for two main reasons – commuters have started carrying credit and debit cards, instead of cash, and most mobile phones can be easily traced due to the IMEI number of the handset.

The police of all the cities find that the modus operandi of all chain-snatchers is more or less the same. Chances are that the chain-snatcher, observing you from behind parked vehicles, may be looking for an opportunity to strike. Of late, chain-snatchers wear burkhas. As the percentage of women chain-snatchers is still very low, this method gives them a safe way to approach their victim. It also makes it difficult for the victim to see the face of the actual chain-snatcher.

The first advice police officials stress on is that the women wearing costly jewellery should refrain from walking on the road, and instead, ensure that they remain on pavements and footpaths.

Another advice is: “Pin your gold chain/ mangalsutra to your saree while travelling by road and avoid sitting at the edge of an autorickshaw, as most victims are targeted by bike-borne men, while the victim is travelling in an auto. Auto drivers are important witnesses to the offence, but they rarely come forward to give information after a theft is reported. At times, they could even be a party to the crime.” The best course, if you really want to wear your jewels for a society function or puja ceremony is to insure them. The insurance rate is as low as one rupee per thousand rupees of the jewellery. That means, a necklace weighing 40 grams (worth one lakh rupees, approximately) will mean an insurance premium of one thousand rupees a year.