Bhopal’s mobile-grab spiral rattles high-security zones

Bhopal: The state capital is witnessing a worrying rise in snatching incidents, especially mobile phone snatchings, with multiple cases reported across areas such as Piplani, Shahpura and Gautam Nagar. Over a dozen snatching incidents have been reported in the city during the past one month, raising concerns about safety and the effectiveness of urban policing.What is particularly alarming is that the trend is no longer confined to isolated pockets but has spread across the city, including upscale residential colonies and busy commercial zones. Areas such as Piplani, Govindpura, Bag Sewania, Shahpura, Habibganj, Chunabhatti, MP Nagar, Aishbagh, Talaiya, and Gautam Nagar have all reported recent incidents. Police claim that several recent cases have been solved and deny the involvement of any organised racket, but the frequency and spread of incidents continue to raise questions about deterrence and patrol gaps.Cops maintain that different individuals, rather than a single gang, are carrying out these crimes. Recent action by Habibganj police—who arrested three snatchers along with a middleman and a mobile repair shop owner and recovered five snatched mobile phones—points towards a small but active network that is facilitating such crimes. Police said patrolling has been intensified across several parts of the city, particularly between 6 pm and 10 pm, when most such incidents are reported. Surveillance on previously arrested mobile snatchers has also been stepped up.Mobile lost complaint instead of snatching caseDespite the introduction of a dedicated section to register snatching FIRs under the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), in many cases police have been seen as reluctant to file such complaints. In the latest incident reported in Shahpura on Thursday night, two unidentified bike-borne miscreants allegedly snatched a 42-year-old businessman's mobile phone outside a restaurant near the Bawadia Kalan ROB around 9.15 pm. When the businessman approached Shahpura police to lodge a complaint, the cops took an application of a lost mobile phone instead of registering a snatching case. After the matter was brought to the notice of the Police Commissioner, Shahpura police called the businessman again to the police station on Friday and registered an FIR.A dedicated section for snatching (Section 304) was introduced under the BNS, which came into effect on July 1, 2024. Earlier, such incidents were typically registered as loot cases under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which placed them under stricter police monitoring and more stringent punitive measures. However, with the new snatching classification in the BNS, these cases now fall under the category of theft rather than loot, altering the procedural and legal weight attached to them.How the snatchers operateHabibganj police seized five mobile phones after arresting three mobile snatchers recently. Habibganj SHO Sanjeev Chouksey said that police found the snatchers were connected to a mobile phone repair-shop operator through a middleman. The mobile shop owner was allegedly dismantling stolen mobile phones and selling the parts, and both the middleman and the shop owner too were arrested. One of the miscreants used to keep an eye on the target while the other two snatched mobile phones and sped away on their bikes.Another senior cop said that in mobile phone-snatching cases solved last year, police had found that hardcore criminals were using youngsters and minors to commit crimes, especially mobile phone snatchings. Selling snatched mobile phones is a tough task because of the risk of detection through the IMEI number, yet the network continues to operate.Cops added that in many mobile phone snatching incidents, it was found that hardcore criminals based in Aman Colony had stopped committing incidents themselves but were using vulnerable minors and youngsters to carry out mobile phone snatchings. These criminals provided two-wheelers on rent to the minors and youngsters, taught them to target pedestrians walking on the road while talking on the phone, and paid them Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 and sometimes up to Rs 5,000 per mobile phone. Even if these youngsters snatched one or two phones a day, the money was enough to meet their daily expenses. The hardcore criminals also had a network in other states, including Karnataka and Maharashtra, as well as along the Nepal border, where they supplied the snatched mobile phones. They easily purchased snatched phones from these young robbers, thus motivating them to repeat the crime. After a major police operation in Aman Colony, however, the activities of these hardcore criminals have been relatively controlled.Police tighten surveillancePolice Commissioner Sanjay Kumar said that patrolling has been intensified, especially between 6 pm and 10 pm, as most snatching incidents occur during these hours. He added that surveillance of habitual offenders with a history of snatching has been increased, and preventive action is being taken against them. The number of CCTV cameras is also being increased across the city. At the police station level, stretches with poor lighting are being identified.