Gold rush: Chain snatching the rage on trains in Mumbai

With the price of gold soaring, crimes on local trains are increasingly acquiring a yellow tinge. “Criminals who earlier picked pockets and stole mobile phones have switched to chain snatching because of an assured reward,” said a police officer attached to the Dadar railway police station. In 2009, Rs96 lakh worth of gold chains were snatched on Mumbai’s local trains, an increase of 30% over the year before.

Pick-pocketing and mobile theft is no longer a lucrative business for other reasons, according to the officer. Commuters are keeping less cash in wallets, preferring to carry credit debit cards instead. In the case of mobiles, the prices of branded phones are decreasing by the day, and some people now use cheap China-made phones. Besides, branded cell phones have the IMEI number, with which the police can track down the handset, making it difficult to sell off the phone, the officer said.

So shiny has the chain-snatching business become that people of varied backgrounds are trying their hand at it, including a former bar girl and a peanut seller.

The Thane railway police recently arrested Ashok Shinde, 20, along with his associate Swapnil Mahadik, 20, for snatching a 40-gram gold chain and the cell phone of a college student at Diva station. A first-time offender, Shinde, a resident of Diva, took to robbing gold ornaments as it would fetch him more than what he earned by hawking peanuts at Kalyan station, said inspector Shivaji Dhumal, who was earlier with the Thane railway police station.

In another case, former bar girl Yasmin alias Reshma Jaykumar Devender, 21, was arrested by the Mumbai railway crime branch officials for chain-snatching and pick-pocketing in the ladies compartments, and recovered gold ornaments and cash, collectively worth Rs96,000.

A police officer said that even the minor children of women selling flowers in the ladies compartments, women wearing burkhas, and drug addicts have taken to the crime.

Police inspector Kishore Pasalkar, attached to the crime branch of Mumbai railway police, said, “A special team of women constables has been formed to tackle chain-snatching in the ladies compartments. They wear costly saris andgold ornaments on crowded locals to nab the offenders.”