Besides four snatchings that took place in Chandigarh and Panchkula yesterday, three more cases were reported this afternoon.

While the victims remained women, the accused are the young motorbike riders, mostly reported riding black Pulsar motorbikes.

The city police were caught napping yet again today after the snatchers struck in Sector 32 and 46. The two incidents were reported within 10 minutes of each other, leaving the police red-faced.

It was around 12.45 pm today when a duo approached Manjit Kaur who was standing near her house in Sector 46. Within a split second, the two young men, wearing black colour jackets and full-face safety helmets, snatched Manjit’s gold chain. Before Kaur could assess what had hit her, the two sped away on the black Pulsar motorbike they were riding. Manjit’s husband Balbir Singh was a head constable in the Chandigarh Police, before he took voluntary retirement. He was posted at Sector 26 police station. Balbir’s brother is, however, serving in the Chandigarh Police and resides in the same house, near which the snatching took place.

However, even before the police could act on the first incident, snatchers struck again in Sector 46, adjoining Sector 32. At about 1 pm, Chander Kanta (57), was returning home from the Sector 32 market when she noticed a boy on yet another black Pulsar bike. It was parked at the road-turn near her house. “Another youngster, who was standing at a distance, approached me pretending he was a passerby. I was caught unawares when he pounced on me suddenly and snatched my gold chain. Meanwhile, the other boy had started his bike by then and they both vanished from the scene in a fraction of seconds,” Kanta recalled.

Again at around 2 pm, Usha Rani, a Sector 19 Panchkula resident, was attacked by two youths riding on a red-colour motorbike. “The woman was along with her son when two unknown youth on a red bike snatched her chain, near Sector 19 bus stop. Before she could realise what had happened, the accused sped away,” said Inspector Balbir Singh, Station House Officer, Sector 20 police station.

Two women had been attacked yesterday as well in the same manner. While two riders on a bike snatched Tripta Prabhakar’s gold chain; Saroj Aggarwal, a Sector 4 resident was attacked by a young man, who in the guise of asking directions, snatched her gold chain and sped away on a black motorbike.

Parul, a tutor and a resident of Sector 21, was attacked on February 13 in Sector 19 market. “I was attacked as I took out my wallet to pay the rickshaw puller. I could not even gather what struck me but by that time the snatchers had already fled with my wallet containing Rs 6,000. A complaint was lodged with the police as well but to no avail,” she recalled.

The shoddy intelligence network and poor detection of this spate of snatchings has raised many question marks on the efficiency of the city police. The situation, which is worst in south sub-division with nearly 100 cases of snatchings last year going unsolved, has exposed the city police’s failure in putting the guilty behind bars.

When contacted, a senior police officer, said, "We have even deployed our women officers in plain clothes and hope to make a breakthrough soon.”

Meanwhile, in a late evening development, the Chandigarh Police arrested brothers Sidhartha and Gautam on the charges of snatching. Residents of Sector 22, the brothers were arrested near Gurdial Singh petrol pump in Sector 22 following a tip-off by a snatching victim.