New trend behind snatchings from mothers with kids?

Kolkata: With two repeated cases of snatching from women when they were accompanying their small children to some places, the city police are suspecting it to be a new way of identifying targets to ensure an easy escape after committing the crime.

On Saturday night, a bag was snatched from a middle-aged woman when she was returning home with her son at Bansdroni in South Kolkata. A similar incident had taken place around 11 days ago at Thakurpukur, which is also in the southern part of the city, in which a gold chain was snatched from a woman.

Police said that on Saturday night, the victim was returning from a relative's house along with her son to their residence. All of a sudden, three youth came on a motorbike and snatched her bag.

Police suspect that the accused were following the woman for quite some time and then approached her from behind when she was passing through a deserted place.

Before the woman could have done anything, the accused fled the place. The woman later went to Bansdroni police station and lodged a complaint in this connection.

It is learnt that the woman told the police that there was hardly any scope for her to attract attention of local people so that someone could come forward to help her. Moreover, being traumatised she found herself in a helpless situation as she was all alone

with her son.

She couldn't shout apprehending that the accused could return and cause harm to

her son.

In the incident that took place 11 days ago at Thakurpukur, the woman Sima Roy had also faced quite a similar situation when her gold chain was snatched. The cops launched a manhunt after a portrait parley of the accused, Mannan Laskar, was prepared, following which, he was arrested.

The police are now trying to ascertain whether repeated incidents in which valuables are being snatched from women when they were accompanying their small children are just a mere coincidence or it is being done after proper planning.

The police suspect that the accused are targeting women when they are heading somewhere with their children knowing it well that it would not become possible for the victims even to cry for help for the safety of their kids.

The police have intensified vigil to avoid repetition of such incidents and are taking necessary steps to arrest the people involved in the crime.