The recent death of a woman after falling off a two-wheeler during a chain-snatching incident on Osmania University campus came as a rude jolt to people. Chain snatchings are not unheard of in the city. All these days, chain snatchings meant loss of property or at the most, minor injuries to the victim.
However, the ‘murder’ of P. Sumalatha at the hands of a snatcher was quite shocking. More dreadful was the audacity of snatchers, who struck further even after police stepped up patrolling on city roads after her death. A couple of days after the incident, chain snatchers struck at five places in the commissionerates of Hyderabad and Cyberabad on a single day in gap of three hours.
Blue Colt teams riding on new bikes, patrolling teams moving in Innova vehicles and the interceptor vehicles with armed policemen inside could not stop the offenders. On one hand, the government wants to take safety and security of Hyderabad — fast emerging as metro — to next level with friendly policing, surveillance of every inch and swift reaction. But the ‘murder’ on OU campus road and subsequent unabated chain snatchings are raising new questions. The absence or non-functioning of cameras is not an issue only at the OU campus. The traffic surveillance camera at Andhra Bank in Koti and Narayanaguda, where snatchers struck later, too were found to be not working.
The killer of Sumalatha hopefully would be caught sooner or later, but how to improve further the response time of police is the real challenge. Policemen at the field level are not ready to share any information about snatchings fearing “reprimand from bosses for failure to prevent them”. For them, these offences are better not disclosed. Apparently, not many are aware of the offences and fail to take precautions, falling prey to the snatchers.
