Chennai: The special teams formed to nab pocket-pickers on MTC routes are always tasked to take on gangs, whose minimum strength will be a quartet while the police team is only buddy peer.
But that’s not all. Most times when they roundup the suspects, they get little support from the public. This forces them to forfeit their personal safety and to rely on backup from the control room to reach the spot. A special team was wrongly accused of pocket picking and subjected to mob thrashing.
A policewoman lost her five-sovereign gold chain during a standoff with suspects and to compound her woes, her superior was not willing to pursue her complaint – meaning she won’t get her jewel back. On another occasion, the same policewoman was bitten by a cornered pocket picker in the latter’s escape bid.
The gangs are mostly from Andhra Pradesh like in the recent case cracked by a special party of head-constables belonging to AWPS (All Women Police Station) – Amudha of Vadapalani, Vaishnavi of T Nagar, Ananthavalli of Teynampet and Hema Malini of T Nagar on March 2.
Amudha and Vaishnavi, who were waiting at Vadapalani bus stop, noticed four women get down from an MTC bus and board another bus. Three of the four were caught and two of them had bags stitched in their in-skirts. Cash of Rs 6,000 and a mobile stolen from a WCC student on March 1 were recovered from their possession. One managed to escape.
“Of late, the gangs, are targeting only those coming from rural Kancheepuram and Villupuram for purchase. They operate on routes from Poonamallee and T Nagar. The gangs had also taught their children who would open the handbags and collect valuables”, said a senior police officer.
Amudha and Vaishnavi, when contacted, were empathetic towards the victims who had to run pillar to post not only for the money but also for items such as ID cards and ATM cards. They were full of praise for T.Nagar DCP P. Saravanan for the latter’s firm stand on cracking the whip on pocket-pickers.
