Net criminals on the prowl at the malls.
This was police commissioner Sujoy Chakraborty’s order to his force at a conference in Lalbazar on Thursday. The aim: to ensure a crime-free environment for Puja shoppers.
Officers said a security ring would be thrown around shopping hubs across the city to keep a tab on snatchers and lifters. Officers-in-charge of all police stations were asked to take steps to prevent a spurt in pre-Puja crime rates.
The officers were asked to intensify vigil in their areas. “We have been directed to deploy plainclothesmen in and around market complexes. Their brief will be to identify lifters and snatchers,” said an officer of a police station in central Calcutta.
The police had a bitter experience last year, faced with a record number of snatchings and pickpocketings in the Burrabazar, New Market, Park Street and the Gariahat areas. “Criminals in the guise of shoppers entered crowded markets and slashed shoppers’ bags and wallets with ease. The entire operation used to be so smooth that when the victims raised the alarm, the criminals were nowhere to be seen,” said an officer of the detective department.
Last year, 26 shoplifters and snatchers were rounded up in Burrabazar, 17 in the Bowbazar-Mahatma Gandhi Road-Rabindra Sarani belt, 24 in New Market, 15 in Park Street and Shakespeare Sarani, and 16 in the Gariahat-Dhakuria area.
This year, the police fear the criminals will hit upon new techniques. “A few weeks ago, a woman shoplifter was arrested from a mall on Park Street. No one would realise that she was a shoplifter,” said an officer of Park Street thana.
“We’ve information that the criminals, both male and female, will dress up well to pass off as well-to-do people. They will try to loot customers at shopping complexes taking advantage of the crowd. Our officers have been asked to identify and net them,” said a senior officer at Lalbazar.
The detective department’s watch section has been asked to prepare a list of snatchers and lifters caught last year. “We will have to check their whereabouts. If they are still active, we’ll have to grill them before the shopping spree kicks off,” the officer asserted.
