Patna: Incidents of chain, wallet and mobile snatching are on the rise in Patna.

In most of the cases, the snatchers are biker gangs or local criminals targeting women and girls in isolated areas in the morning and evening.

On May 5 at Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park popularly known as Patna Zoo, a youth had snatched a gold chain from Archana Devi, 35, a resident of Patel Nagar, who had gone to the zoo for an evening stroll. He escaped after scaling the boundary wall of the zoo.

As the incident occurred at Patna zoo where common people and VIPs go for morning and evening walks, Patna police constituted a team to crack the case after the woman lodged a case at Sachivalaya police station area. Sachivalaya station house officer Rakesh Kumar Bhaskar said: "As the case pertains to chain snatching at Patna zoo, which is a protected area, a police team was constituted to crack the case. The team went through the CCTV footages in the area and based on intelligence inputs arrested Birju Paswan, a resident of Sheikhpura. The youth after snatching the chain had sold it to a certain Jitendra Ram of the same area."

Paswan and Ram were arrested and the police found the chain on them. The Patna police have also identified certain sensitive areas where cases of chain snatching are frequent. Regular patrolling is being conducted in all the areas. Police sources said apart from local gangs, members of biker gangs are mostly involved in such snatchings.

A police officer said: "The snatchers do not have particular patterns or locations where they commit the crimes. They choose remote areas and locations close to schools, temples, parks and residential areas for committing the crime."