Unlocked: Crime returns to Chennai after Covid norms eased – Times of India

CHENNAI: This is a pre-Covid normalcy the city can do without. With Chennai shut during the Covid-19 outbreak, the crime chart had plummeted. Criminals chose to remain at home and killed time watching movies. But now, with the lockdown norms easing, they are on the prowl again.

Last Saturday, a man was hacked to death after he alerted police about illicit sale of liquor in Tondiarpet. In Sholavaram, a 20-year-old ganja peddler was killed while on his way home from a funeral.
The city was used to see more than 20 murders a month on an average before the Covid lockdown. The number had come down to six in June. But with curbs on movement easing, the crime graph is rising. In the first 18 days of August, the city has already seen 12 murders.
Robberies, incidents of chain snatching and thefts have started to occur with pre-lockdown frequency this month after a lull in April and May. Retired police officer Aravindhan says some first-time offenders revealed that they had lost their jobs and took to chain snatching to meet their financial needs. And with and gold prices reigning high, it’s the easiest way to make a quick buck for desperate youngsters.
When the lockdown was strictly enforced people stayed indoors, so chain-snatchers had fewer targets. Now, there are more people on the roads and so cases of gold chain and mobile phone snatching are rising once again. On Wednesday, two youths on a bike snatched a bag with Rs 1 lakh in it from a senior citizen at Virugambakkam, and two shops were burgled at Ambattur. In July, the Abhirampuram police arrested a three-member that was involved in 13 chain-snatching incidents.
Aravindhan says one problem the police face is that to check the spread of Covid-19, magistrates had granted bail to make inmates of Puzhal jail, who were arrested for crimes that attracted punishment below seven years. “The magistrates were strictly following the Supreme Court guidelines and letting all those arrested under Section 379 of IPC and involved in thefts, robbery. Many criminals took advantage of it and are now indulging in crime,” he said.
Police sources said that they faced a difficulty in putting criminals behind bars as they had to get them tested for Covid-19, but had no legal way of retaining custody of them while waiting for test results, which took time.
A police officer with the commissionerate said that despite these constraints they have cracked most cases. “We have solved almost 92% crimes and murders reported during the lockdown with the help of traditional policing and CCTV camera footage,” he said.