Bhubaneswar, Sept. 28: Chain snatchers and bike lifters have set the alarm bells ringing in citypolice headquartersaheado Dussehra.

In the past 15 days, around 20 chain-snatching incidents have been reported in the commissionerate police area. Several cases of motorcycle theft have also been reported.

The police said the snatching incidents have shot up following release of hardened criminals from jails on bail. On September 24 evening, two criminals snatched the gold chain of one Priyanka Parida near Nicco Park while she was returning home from office. She lodged a complaint with Kharavela Nagar police station.

On September 26, an auto driver was relieved of his gold chain and cash at gunpoint by a goon at Saheed Nagar.

In certain cases, the victims did not lodge complaint. On Monday, two motorcycle-borne youths snatched the necklace of a woman near Parivesh Bhawan in front of the CBI office at Nayapalli. The woman fell down and got injured. However, she did not lodge any complaint as her necklace was made of imitation gold.

A senior police officer said the chain-snatching and bike-lifting cases had recently gone up as the criminals, who were arrested two months ago for their involvement in such crimes,were on bail.

“Now, these goons are freely roaming in the city. They have been committing such crimes,” said the officer.

Deputy commissioner of police Nitinjeet Singh said they had formed two teams to look into the chain-snatching cases and motorcycle theft in the city. On Monday, two youths were arrested by Kharavela Nagar police, who also seized nine motorcycles from them.

They were caught during a night patrol conducted by the police. The two were found to be known criminals.

“We are keeping an eye on the situation. The patrolling has been intensified at several places, especially wherewomen’s movement is frequent. We are also taking preventive actions such as booking known criminals under preventive sections,” said Singh.

Singh also said around 12 puja pandals had given their consent to install CCTV cameras to keep track on criminal activities. It is expected to help the police detect crimes happening at and around pandals.

Tehsildar bribe

Vigilance sleuths today arrested the tehsildar of Khurda while he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000 from a sand quarry contractor for getting his contract renewed. The accused, Dhirendra Nath Kar, was caught red-handed from near his residence in Pokhariput in the city.

Vigilance sleuths said a team of its anti-corruption unit had laid a trap and recovered chemical-stained cash from the motorcycle boot of the revenue official.

Superintendent of police, vigilance, Bhubaneswar, Jagannath Naik said the raid was conducted this morning following a complaint from the contractor, Yudhistir Udaya Singh, a resident of Baligadia in Jankia.