It is no longer safe to walk and talk on your mobile phones in recent days’ – state several recent cases reported in which moped gangs are snatching phones from people on the streets, throwing an open challenge for police to curb their menace, in Belagavi.
When several people have stopped wearing gold ornaments due to the fear of chain snatching gang, here is the new menace which has started worrying them which has been identified as “Mobile snatching gang”. This moped gang has been actively operating in the district since last 15 to 20 days, keeping the police clueless about them. In a couple of days more than 7 mobile snatching cases have been reported only within Malmaruti police station limits.
Unlike chain snatching cases, in which victims immediately approach police, in mobile snatching case,s victims do not usually do that. And this is what is encouraging the mobile snatching gang in getting more and more active in the district. Rising mobile snatching cases have been reported at Hanuman Nagar, Kumarswamy Layout, Camp area, Hindwadi, Bhagya Nagar, Mahantesh Nagar and other areas. The highest mobile snatching cases reported in the city are in Malmaruti area near Dharmanath Bhavan. Several people have complained that their mobile was snatched away by a moped gang in the last couple of days. And hardly some of them have approached police for the same.
Prajakta (name changed), who is one of the victim of the mobile snatching gang, said that she was speaking on her mobile phone near Dharmanath Bhavan when two thugs riding on their bike snatched it away from her. “For a few seconds, I was in shock and could not even scream. And later when I started shouting for help, the thugs had already disappeared,” she said.
Sneha said that she had approached a local policeman, who was her family friend, who then advised her not to approach police station as nothing will be done. “He asked me to forget my stolen mobile phone which was worth about Rs 10,000 and go for a new one. Registering complaint with police station will fetch me more headache is what he told me and so I did not approach police,” she added.
Meanwhile, police succeeded in arresting a 3-member gang and recovered 210 stolen mobile phones from their possession at Katkol village in Ramdurg taluk on Wednesday. The arrested accused have been identified as Sairam Shrinivas Pastuleti (22), Kiran Rajanjaneyalu Pastuleti (24) and Shrikant Rajanjaneyalu Pastuleti (22), all residents of Lingampalli village located in Hyderabad. The seized mobile phones are worth about Rs 10, 50,000.
According to sources, when police spotted them moving in a suspicious way, they tried to inquire. After watching the police approaching them, the trio tried to run. Following the same, police nabbed them and were shocked to recover 210 stolen mobile phones from their possession.
The arrest of the mobile snatching gang at Ramdurg revealed that such gangs do operate in Belagavi exclusively for snatching or stealing mobile phones, throwing a challenge for police.
Cannot do anything about these mobile toting careless fools. There are millions of them in India, talking endlessly without actually not knowing the meaning of communication device and amount of communication to be done. Don’t blame criminals, we have shown them ways to make quick bucks.