Patna, Nov. 7: Chain snatchers: 5. Police: 2.

That’s the November scoreline of strikes by the criminals and arrests made by the cops. And if one takes into account the incidents of chain snatching in the capital since January, the snatchers have struck over 60 times and the police managed to catch about 20 of them.

A day after Patna police announced to go to the chain-snatching victims’ homes with the criminals’ sketches, the chain snatchers struck again today. This time, the victim was a 61-year-old woman, Savitri Devi.

The incident occured on Road number 2 of the Magistrate Colony under Rajiv Nagar police station around 1.50pm.

“My mother was returning home from market when two motorcycle-borne criminals attacked her from behind. Before she could fathom anything, one of the criminals, in his twenties, got down from the motorbike, snatched her gold chain and sped away,” Savitri’s son, Rakesh Kumar, told The Telegraph.

“My mother raised an alarm, but nothing could be done. I called up the police later and lodged an FIR,” added Rakesh, who works as a manager with a nationalis- ed bank.

Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Alok Kumar said investigation was on and the criminals would be arrested soon.

Though the police are yet to make any arrest, they are preparing sketches of the criminals. And once these sketches are ready, the number of such illustrations will be 30. The police, however, admit that their plan to arrest chain snatchers on the basis of sketches drawn by the experts has not been a major success even as eight criminals have been caught so far.

Last evening, the police had announced that sketches of the attackers would be reviewed.

“All police stations have asked to send their personnel to the victims’ houses with the sketches again. The cops will try to modify the sketches on the basis of descriptions given by the victims. Besides, the police will find out how the chain snatchers, arrested earlier and subsequently released, are supporting themselves,” the SSP told The Telegraph.

“The police will like to appeal to the people to try and take down registration numbers of the two-wheelers used by the criminals. This will make the cops’ task easier,” Kumar added.

Two chain snatchers were arrested last week. One of them was Ravikant Gupta, who was caught at Patrakar Nagar but without the help of any sketch.

Ravikant and his accomplice had masterminded a snatching on April 4. However, the latter was caught and he divulged details about Ravikant to the police. Despite this, Ravikant struck six times on his own.

“He was finally arrested on Sunday following a tip-off,” another police officer said.

Four incidents of chain snatching were reported on November 3 alone. The same day, a snatcher from the Kadamkuan area was caught red handed.