Raipur: Police on Sunday busted a ‘mangalsutra’ (sacred necklace) snatching gang in Pathalgaon under Jashpur district in north Chhattisgarh by arresting 11 women including a minor.
Eight pieces of the ‘mangalsutras’ have been recovered from them, the Pathalgaon sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Dhruvesh Jaiswal told this newspaper.
Interestingly, it is an all-women gang of ‘mangalsutra’ snatchers who belonged to one particular village of Kusumi in Balrampur district in north Chhattisgarh, according to Mr Jaiswal.
Police got wind of the gang while probing the ‘mangalsutra’ snatching cases in Pathalgaon reported during the immersion of Durga idol on Saturday evening.
Seven women lodged FIRs in the local police station on Saturday night complaining that their mangalsutras were stolen by some chain snatchers when they were witnessing the immersion of Durga idols, leading the cops to begin a probe into the incident.
Two women were on Sunday detained in connection with the incident.
Later, interrogation of the two women led to the disclosure that an all-women gang was involved in snatching the sacred necklaces from the women, police said.
According to the police, the modus operandi of the gang involved conducting a Reece by the particular members of the gang in a crowded area to find their victims.
Later, the other members of the gang, assigned the task of snatching the mangalsutras from the victims, visit the spot and commit the crime.
“The gang members are professional chain snatchers. We suspect there are other members of the gang. They will soon be brought to book”, the police officer said.
Interestingly, a preliminary investigation by the police has found that all the gang members are related to each other, police said.
The gang was found to be snatching only ‘mangalsutras’, police said.
Probe was on to find out more details about the gang, police said.
