The motorcycle robberies

Even as officials of the police chowky on the Carter Road promenade regularly chase innocent groups of friends and couples from the area a gang of two has been snatching chains from unsuspecting morning walkers for the past two monthsu00a0Fifty six yearold Yatin Dossa a businessman from Mount Mary Road was assaulted by a sudden blow to the neck by two unidentified motorcyclists last Sunday morning Bandra resident Yatin Dossa points to the spot where he was assaulted and robbed of his gold chain by two robbers on a motorbike at Carter Road last Sunday They managed to flee with his gold chain worth over Rs 1 lakh ldquoI have been taking morning walks on Carter Road with three friends for many years At around 720 am last Sunday I was suddenly struck on the neck by two young boys who appeared to be in their early twenties They sped away with my gold chain before we could reactrdquo said Dossa Dossarsquos shouts for help attracted the attention of a police constable posted in the area who joined him in chasing the robbers in a rickshaw but they were no match for the speeding bikeu00a0ldquoI am gutted because more than the monetary value it carries the locket attached to my chain was given to me by my late spiritual Guru and is irreplaceablerdquo said Dossa who subsequently filed an FIR at Khar Police station a copy of which is with Sunday MiD DAY Yatin Dossa shows the spot where he was robbed at Carter Road ldquoInitially the cops registered a case of robbery under IPC section 379 for theft which attracts a maximum imprisonment of three years but on Saturday it was changed to section 392 which pertains to a robbery of a more serious nature and can be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to 14 yearsrdquo he added Forty five yearold Vincent Mathias a member of the H West Federation also had his gold chain worth over Rs 1 lakh snatched from Carter Road in a similar fashion last month ldquoI am aware of upto 10 cases of chain snatchings in and around Carter Road Both crimes were committed by the same person who is short and stout with curly hair and a moustacherdquo said Mathias who saw what happened to Dossa Two days before Dossa was robbed 52 yearold A Madhavan another avid morning walker and resident of Carter Road was accosted by two men in their midtwenties right outside his house ldquoThe men who were in a rickshaw used foul Hindi expletives and told me lsquophut le varna uda dengersquolsquoget lost or we shootrsquo before decamping with my gold chain worth over Rs 60000 and along with it the Rs 50 I keep in my pocket as emergency rickshaw fare in case of rainrdquo he said Rajesh Jain another resident of Khar said that a person fitting the same description had pushed his mother Sayanben Jain 58 and decamped with her chain near Khar Jain Mandir ldquoMy mother had to be treated for the bruises she sustainedrdquo he said H West Federation chairperson and Khar Residentsrsquo Association managing trustee Anandini Thakoor said that it was also the responsibility of citizens not to flaunt their jewellery in public ldquoChurch and temple goers dressed in their Sunday best are easy targets These rogues manage to flee into the narrow bylanes of Carter Road even before the police can be alertedrdquo said Thakoor Thakoor rued that in the recent past there were two cases where alert citizens were able to nab the chain snatchers but the accused walked scot free as the victims refused to lodge a police complaint once their property was recovered Addl CP West Vishwas Nangre Patil whose office is located on Carter Road said that the vigil on Carter Road has been tightened ldquoArmed policemen are posted on both ends of the road and two sets of cops on motorbikes are keeping a constant vigil on the situation Based on the description given by the victims we have some clues and are investigatingrdquo he said Too fast too furious On June 10 2012 six chains estimated at around Rs 3 lakh were snatched within a span of halfanhour on the Carter Road stretch of BandraKhar Most of the victims were elderly women All the incidents took place early in the morning with the thieves coming on motorcycles and speeding away after snatching the victimsrsquo chains Shila Varda a homemaker had her handbag containing two mobile phones and a necklace worth approximately Rs 1 lakh stolen from inside her moving rickshaw less than a year ago at Khar ldquoWe were near a junction at Linking Road in Khar which leads towards Carter Road when two men on a bike swooped into our moving rickshaw and decamped with my bag in broad daylight The description of a plump man described in the Carter Road chain snatching matches the one I encounteredrdquou00a0