After a chain snatcher tried to grab senior cop's wife's chain, cops have been rounding up those in their records and parading them outside her residence
After a chain snatcher tried to grab senior cop's wife's chain, cops have been rounding up those in their records and parading them outside her residence
All 20 police stations in the centre region and their force of 5,000 officers have not been able to nail the chain snatcher who attempted to seize a senior cop's wife's gold chain. But it is not the vainness of effort, but the vanity of it that is more testing for officials trying to identify the offender who attempted to snatch Additional Police Commissioner Qaiser Khalid's wife's chain at Dadar over a week ago. 
For madam's comfort: Sumana, the wife of Additional Commissioner
of Police Qaiser Khalid, looks at the chain snatchers from behind a mesh
in her house. The identification parade happens outside her house
instead of a police station, as is usually the case.
Illustration/ Jishu Dev Malakar
The unconventional manner in which the investigation is being conducted makes it quite a spectacle, as the identification parades are not done at the police station but at the cop's residence.
On display
Sources revealed that detection officers of every police station in the eastern and central region have been visiting the commissioner's building at the Railway Quarters in Dadar (East).
They are accompanied by batches of chain snatchers in police records. The team stands right in front of the additional commissioner's flat, while one of the officers walks up to his first-floor apartment to inform the his wife, Sumana, that the team, and the thugs, have arrived. Then, from behind a mesh inside her house, she looks out at the chain snatchers, who have been made to stand in a file for recognition.
"We have been bringing mostly all chain snatchers in our records to madam's (Sumana) house. We stand with the snatchers outside while madam stands at the window with a senior officer from our police station. She then looks them over one after the other," said a detection officer. "If it is not the culprit who tried to steal her chain, our officers ask us to bring the next lot to her residence."
Vantage point
The arrangement is so that Sumana gets a clear view of the chain snatcher, but the thug under observation cannot see her.u00a0 While there has been no success in the case so far, reformed chain snatchers of the area are the ones having sleepless nights attending the presentation, cops said.
"The problem is that most chain snatchers who have reformed are the only ones found at home. Those still operating are mostly on the run and they keep changing locations. We are trying our best to track all criminals in our record," said another police officer.
The incident
On October 3, an unknown chain snatcher had attempted to flee with the gold chain of Sumana (39) near Shivaji Park in Dadar (West).
As she was getting in a cab near Sujata hotel, the thug tried to seize her chain but he fled after she started shouting for help. An FIR was registered against the unknown culprit. Several meetings were called. Police officers in the centre region have been on their toes ever since to find the accused. MiD DAY had reported about the investigative frenzy on October 5 ('5,000 cop chase one chain snatcher').
ADVERTISEMENT
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
