3 on bike snatch morning walker’s gold chain, 1 held
Times of India | 16 June 2025
12 Kolkata: Cops claimed to have nabbed one of three bike-borne snatchers, Md Shamim, who had robbed a 76-year-old morning walker in Salt Lake of her gold chain and left her with a bleeding neck last week. The snatchers had tugged at her chain while she was walking near her AC block home at 6 am.It appeared a diificult case to be solve initially as the miscreants had the registration number plate on the rear end of the bike blacked out. But it took a significant turn after CCTV footage from the area revealed the front registration number of the fleeing two-wheeler. But what added to the difficulty was the fact that the bike was resold multiple times. Cops were able to track down one of the accused after a painstaking effort of visiting the homes of five persons with whom the second-hand bike had changed hands. "The case also underscores the importance of maintaining accurate ownership records during the sale or purchase of vehicles. In this case, the trail nearly went cold because the registered owner sold the bike informally without updating the records," said a senior officer from the Bidhannagar Commissionerate.According to the victim, the trio had pounced on her around 6 am on June 10 as she was stepping out for her morning walk. "They parked their bike near AC 56 and then rode up to me. Before I could react, one of them yanked off my gold chain, which weighed around 17-18 gm and had a V-shaped pendant embedded with two small diamonds," she stated in her written complaint to the Bidhannagar North Police Station.Speaking to TOI, the victim, a retired college professor, said she was too shocked to even raise an alarm or identify the faces of the men, although they neither wore a helmet nor a mask. "I could only say ‘ke re' (who's that)? But I froze when I looked back and saw the criminals riding away on the bike. I called up the local councillor, who is a friend, and then later went to the local police station. I suffered a deep cut on my neck and am still in pain and trauma," she said on Sunday. "I have been living in Salt Lake for 25 years, but this is the first time something like this has ever happened," she added.While investigating the case, cops took out details of the ‘visible number plate' and reached a resident of Howrah, who said he had sold the vehicle some years ago. "We had to visit five different people before we landed on Md Shamim, alias Vicky, a known repeat offender from Tangra who matched the CCTV images," said a senior officer of Bidhannagar City Police. Shamim was arrested from Tangra on Friday (June 13) and produced before a Salt Lake court, which remanded him in judicial custody. Police said he was the rider of the motorbike at the time of the incident and added that efforts are on to nab the two other accomplices, who were riding pillion. The cops are also trying to recover the stolen jewellery.