TIRUPATI: The recent spurt in chain snatching incidents, house burglaries and treasure hunting across the state shows that unscrupulous elements are going all out to get hold of some gold through any means.Though no marked increase is observed in burglaries here, there has been a significant rise in chainsnatching. The snatchers are adopting new methods and techniques and changing their modus operandi from time to time.While some snatchers take advantage of the negligence of people wearing gold, others use their skills to divert the attention of their target and complete their task without any difficulty.The current trend is to use some spray or powder on the victims to immobilise or tranquilise them and take away their gold. J Prabhakara Rao, superintendent of police, Tirupati Urban Police District, admitted that there was a spurt in chain-snatching not only in Tirupati but also in the entire state in recent times.“Whether we attribute it to the soaring gold prices or not, it is true that the snatchers are coming out with new methods and there is a spurt in chain snatching incidents,’’ he said.Stating that the police are not able to recover all the gold stolen, he hinted at strengthening the CCS in the town. Being a famous pilgrim town, identification of burglars is always a challenging task to the police here and this is effecting the chances of recovery to some extent, Prabhakara Rao added.Saying that police are making all efforts for reducing such crimes, he said that they held a meeting with the pawn brokers in the town and instructed them to give gold loans only after ascertaining the identity of the person and also appealed to them to inform the police if they suspect anyone coming to them with gold ornaments.Karimnagar: In Karimnagar, the notorious Dhoom Khalid gang waylayed travellers on the town outskirts and robbed them of their gold ornaments.Police arrested the gang members in the first week of this month.In a fresh incident at Kodurupaka village of Boinpalli mandal, some unidentified persons terrorised Nagula Chandraiah family and decamped with 3 tulas of gold and silver ornaments.Two more such incidents were reported from Appannapet and Andugulapalli villages of Peddapalli mandal, where burglars broken the locks of two houses and decamped with 7 tulas of gold and 50,000 cash recently.Meanwhile, to control such crime, district superintendent of police V Ravinder has launched “visible policing system” by setting up sub-control rooms at busy places in the district.The police are also planning to set up closed circuit (CC) television cameras.They urge people to inform the nearest police station when they go on long trips elsewhere.Jewellery shop owners are also installing closed circuit (CC) cameras at their shops to check if any suspicious persons are wandering near the shops or if any ornaments are missing “We are monitoring the movement of customers through the CC cameras throughout the day to see if any suspicious characters are visiting the shop,” said Shivanandam, proprietor of Sivasai Jewelleries.Vijayawada: A number of chain snatching incidents are taking place during the early hours at the Pundit Nehru bus station and the railway station in Vijayawada.According to police, the thieves are also targeting women morning-walkers.As per the city crime records bureau, total Rs 64,05,672 worth of gold has been stolen this year till December 7, while it was only Rs 44, 27, 000 last year.While there were only four chain snatching cases in September 2010, the number increased to 15 in September 2011.Gold thefts include burgularies at houses and gold shops.In order to prevent thefts gold shop owners in Vijayawada have tightened security at shops and 90 percent of jewellery shops in the city installed CC cameras.“In view the growing chain snatching in the city, I am not wearing more than one gold chain.I kept all my jewellery at my home for safety,” said, P Lakshmi, a private company employee, who is staying at a hostel in the city.“The steep increase in gold prices was the reason behind the rise in gold thefts.We all got CC cameras installed at our shops last year on the advice of the then city police commissioner R Sitharamanjaneylu,” said Y Venkateshwar Rao, a gold shop owner in two town area.Several youth who want to earn easy money are committing offenses like chain snatching and women, particulary the college girls, should be more careful when they wear jewelry, said J Suryanarayana, President of Vijayawada Bullion Merchants Association.Meanwhile, Vijayawada city police Commissioner, who held crime review meeting on December 9, said they were taking all necessary steps to contain chain snatching and formed 13 special teams to check such incidents and nab the culprits.
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