Noida police arrest 29 suspected snatchers, recover 42 cellphones
The Noida police arrested 29 persons suspected of snatching and recovered 42 stolen mobile phones in a week-long drive — operation catch snatcher. The drive was launched to check the rising cases of chain and mobile phone snatching in the city.
The Noida police arrested 29 persons suspected of snatching and recovered 42 stolen mobile phones in a week-long drive — operation catch snatcher. The drive was launched to check the rising cases of chain and mobile phone snatching in the city.
Superintendent of police (Noida city), Dinesh Yadav, said that the rising number of snatching incidents in busy market places of Noida had been troubling residents for long and it was high time that the police nabbed the suspects.
“Though mobile snatching might appear as a petty crime to some, its impact is huge for victims and it also dents the image of the city if criminals are seen operating freely in busy market places. In the last two months, incidents of chain and mobile snatching had increased to an extent that at least three to four reports were registered per day. Therefore, we decided to launch a drive against snatchers,” Yadav said.
The busy market places where most incidents of snatching were reported were Sector 18 Atta market, GIP Mall underpass road, Sector 16 and Sector 62. The police said they identified a total of 312 snatchers who had past criminal records in a week, of which 287 were rounded up.
“We prepared a list of chain snatchers who had police records and rounded them. Of the 312 identified snatchers, 91 were found in jail, 141 were found living at home, 32 had left Noida, four dead and a total of 19 who still engaged in snatching,” Yadav said.
“We took action against the 19 active snatchers and apprehended 10 more suspects in the operation. As a result, only one incident of chain snatching was registered this week,” Yadav said.
Regarding the recovery of mobile phones, the police said they were assisted by the cyber crime in tracking UID (unique identification) number of mobile phones.
“We tracked the UID number of the missing cell phones and started recovering the ones that were traced in the district. A few phones were traced to Maharashtra and West Bengal. Teams have been dispatched to track and recover them,” Gaurav Grover, circle officer, said.