the court in charge of handling such cases has too much on its platter and too few hands to help.
Worried at the increasing numbers of women being attacked and chains being snatched on the streets? Well, city courts have taken note of the increasing nuisance, and have tried to tackle the menace - only to realise that they have a lot of other pending work to dispose of first.
It is an irony that explains why offenders like chain snatchers are still at large. On one hand, the city sessions court has rejected a chain snatcher's bail application, as an example that cognisance is being taken of the crime's seriousness. But on the other hand, the special court assigned the task of trying chain snatching cases is so overburdened with other work, that it hardly gets the time to hear these cases and punish the criminals.
Additional sessions judge SH Vora had rejected the bail application of one Vijay Chauhan in the last week of August.
Chauhan was arrested by the Shahibaug police station for throwing red chilli powder into a woman's eyes and snatching her gold chain, when she was near the Vikram Sarabhai museum on her morning walk. The cops caught him on the spot.
The cops had filed a chargesheet on June 14, following which Chauhan had moved the bail plea. However, the court rejected the bail application on the grounds that chain snatching has become a very frequent crime in the city now, and not being punished for the crime is only emboldening the offenders. "When such an accused is caught red-handed in the act, no leniency should be shown to him," observed the court.
On its part, the Gujarat high court has also realised the gravity of the situation, and has asked for all chain snatching cases in the city to be transferred to one single court. Following the directives, the court transferred the cases of magistrate court number 13, from January 1. Till date, around 90 FIRs have been registered and transferred to the court. Besides, the cops have filed chargesheets in 43 cases.
Sources from the court, on conditions of anonymity, said that so
far, only one case has been disposed of, and that too was dismissed as the case was settled outside the court. But otherwise, there has hardly been any progress in the court, as it is overburdened with charges of other police stations. Moreover, the staff too is insufficient to deal with chain snatching cases of the entire city.
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