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May 8: A youth was robbed of Rs 69,000 when his bag containing the cash was snatched from him at Hatigaon today, the third incident of snatching during the past week.
Sources at Hatigaon police station said Hussain Ali Ahmed, a resident of Bhetapara, lodged an FIR saying two unidentified youths took away his bag containing the cash just outside the Hatigaon branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) around 11am.
“The youth said he had entered the bank with Rs 94,000 in cash but after depositing Rs 25,000, he came out with rest of the money. Suddenly, two youths came from behind and snatched his bag. We have started a probe but are yet to identify anyone,” a police officer said.
According to the police, the modus operandi of the criminals is similar.
Young criminals, many on bikes or on foot, wait in front of banks or ATMs and target people either coming to deposit money or withdraw cash from banks or the teller machines.
A similar incident took place at Panbazar on Saturday. Retired Assam Rifles jawan Joon Kumar Das from Hajo lodged an FIR with Panbazar police station complaining that unidentified men snatched Rs 69,000 from him in front of the Panbazar branch of the SBI around 11.30am.
Das said he had just come out of the bank when suddenly one person came from behind and snatched the polythene bag containing the cash. The man, in his thirties, melted in the crowd and escaped with the cash.
On Sunday, a youth snatched a bag from a pedestrian in front of Zoo Tiniali around 9am but the bag contained some documents and no money. The person lodged an FIR at Geetanagar police station but the police could neither arrest the criminals nor recover the documents.
With city police yet to track down those behind the snatching cases, many victims are reluctant to go to the police and lodge complaints.
A senior city police officer said they were zeroing in on a well-trained gang of young criminals and are trying to arrest them.
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