Police and city residents can breathe a sigh of relief as two notorious snatchers’ gangs were busted with the arrest of four accused. The teams have recovered as many as 90 mobile phones, weapons from their possession and also impounded a bike and a scooter being used in executing the crimes.
The same comes in the backdrop of a rise in snatching incidents in and around the city.
In the first case, PAU police arrested two accused Sheetla Ganja, 28, of Pippal Chowk, Giaspura, and Ramesh Chauhan, 35, of Makkar Colony, Giaspura, and recovered a total of 65 snatched mobiles from their possession.
Giving out details, commissioner of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu said the accused Sheetla Ganja, along with his accomplice, who is yet to be identified, used to execute snatching in different areas. He added that they would roam around the city on their scooters and snatch mobile phones and other valuables from commuters.
They would then sell the stolen mobile phones to Ramesh Chauhan, a mobile shop owner, for ₹500 tons ₹1,000 to Ramesh Chauhan, who further flipped it for ₹3,000.
The police chief added that the accused on December 15 snatched a mobile phone from a man named Baljit Kumar of Hambran, who lodged an FIR at the PAU police station. During the investigation, the police traced the mobile phone to the accused.
Sheetla Ganja is already facing trial in one case of snatching and a manhunt is underway for the arrest of his aide.
In the second case, meanwhile, Tibba police arrested two accused, Vijay Kumar of Salem Tari and Ravi Sharma of Sandhu colony, at Jagirpur road and recovered 25 mobile phones and a weapon from their possession.
The accused Vijay Kumar is facing trials in two cases, while one FIR has previously been registered against Ravi.
Further, Sindhu said the Zone 3 and Zone 4 of the police commissionerate have solved at least 32 cases of snatching since November 1, with the arrests of 61 accused. The police have recovered a total of 181 mobile phones, ₹14,420 and impounded 32 bikes and a car in relation to the same.
.