60-yr-old loses gold chain in daylight Dhakuria snatching
Times of India | 23 February 2025
123 Kolkata: A 60-year-old woman was left shaken and traumatised after three bike-borne miscreants snatched her gold chain near her residence at Dhakuria in south Kolkata on Saturday evening. The incident left the woman so disturbed that she wished to leave Kolkata for good.
According to Piyali De Roy, she was walking to a relative's home in the same neighbourhood near Dhakuria Jheel Road when the assailants struck her around 5 pm.Champions Trophy 2025IND vs PAK Live: India bowl Pakistan out for 241 runs in Dubai'If Shubman Gill gets out early, Pakistan will have a good chance': Ramiz RajaBabar's absence sparks speculation; PCB chief demands victory at any costThe trio, riding a motorcycle, slowed down next to her, and one of them spoke loudly, pointing at a house to the woman's right. As Roy also turned right out of curiosity, one of them yanked the chain off her neck.
"But they couldn't grab the chain properly, and it fell on my neck. I was too shocked to react and just froze there as the bike started to move forward. The men, however, stopped the bike, and one of them got off, raised his finger, and stared wide-eyed, gesturing at me not to shout as he walked close to me, picked up the chain from my neck, and left the place," said Roy, while sitting at her Selimpur Pally home in Naskarpara on Sunday.
Roy said she could have shouted and raised an alarm but was too shocked to open her mouth or even put up any resistance. "I feared the youths might carry some weapons, and they could hurt me. Thus, I didn't dare to raise an alarm," she said, adding that the chain costs around Rs 1.5 lakh.
Once back home, she narrated the incident to her husband, who then called up their son in Bengaluru. "Our son e-mailed a complaint to Lalbazar on Saturday night. On Sunday, I went to the Garfa PS, and my son sent a second complaint letter to the police station's e-mail address," said her husband, Sankha De Roy.
Cops said they registered a case of snatching and started a probe, scanning CCTV footage from the area to track down the culprits. "We are checking footage from security cameras in the area and verifying possible leads. They should have come to the police station or called us immediately after the incident. Such crimes will not be tolerated," said a senior officer of Kolkata Police.
The elderly woman expressed her deep distress and fear over the deteriorating law and order situation in the city. "Kolkata has become so unsafe. We have all seen what happened in the Abhaya rape-murder case. I don't have faith in Kolkata Police anymore. I have lived here my whole life, but now I no longer feel secure here. My son has been asking me to shift to Bengaluru for a while, and after this, I think I will," she said.
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