Steel City bike gangs target senior citizens

Loot and snatching have become common in the Steel City with goons targeting the senior citizens and women with impunity.
Recently, septuagenarian Namita Chatterjee was taking an evening walk in front of her house in Sonari when three bike-borne goons came from behind and snatched her chain. Chatterjee fell when the pushed her and broke her arm. Neighbours took the bleeding old lady to TMH. Namita had to be operated upon and was confined to bed for nearly four months. She refused to lodge a complaint with the police.
Similarly, Manju Kar, who is in her sixties and also lives in Sonari, was targeted by bike-borne snatchers near her home. Manju talking to TOI narrated how she was stopped by the goons and her chain was snatched.
Manju's daughter Chaitali Kar, who lives in Australia with her family and had come down to her ancestral house with her children, too fell victims of this snatching gang. She was attacked near busy Kagalnagar market area. Chaitali said goons came on a bike and snatched her purse. Chaitali had to approach the police to lodge a complaint, as she lost her debit cards and mobile phone.
Another woman was robbed of her ornaments in Sonari on knife-point, when she was out on the road in the early hours to get milk from the booth.
Due to the shrinking job market, many youths from the Steel City are moving to other places leaving behind their old parents. Taking advantage of this situation goons are now target senior citizens and women.
Though these types of attacks were common in most parts of the city, a study revealed that most of the chain snatching and house loot incidents are taking place in areas under Sonari and Kadma police stations, which are under Jamshedpur West assembly segment.
When BJP MLA saryu Rai, the local lawmaker, was contacted, he said CM Raghubar Das is the home minister too, and he should pay attention to this problem.
City SP Prabhat Kumar, instead of going into the details of the problem and having sympathy for senior citizens, tried to gauge the gravity of the situation by records. He said those incidents which are not reported to police are “no incidents”.
Meanwhile, residents of the affected area said Sonari police station office incharge is not cooperative and is always reluctant to register cases terming them to be petty crimes. During Raghubar's recent visit, the CM came down heavily on the city SP at the Sonari aero-drome over the rise in crime graph in the Steel City.
Residents allege that Tiger Mobiles (police on bikes) and PCR vans patrolling in the city area are of no use. “They are more interested getting bribes from builders, engaged in illegal construction in Tata Steel lease area, rather than giving security to the common man,” said Manoj Singh, an ex-officer of Tata Steel.
Former state minister from Congress Banna Gupta too echoed similar sentiments and came down heavily on the poice administration for not able to give protection to women and senior citizens. Gupta too said police are more interested in making money than giving security, which is their prime job. Though he did not want to name to corrupt officers, he said a section of the cops are hands in glove with the illegal matka, gambling den operators. He said crime in city can not be controlled unless illegal bars, gambling and drug dens are uprooted with an iron hand.