The incidents of mobile phone snatching at gunpoint have increased in the city during the last few months. Mobile phone users feel insecure because of the rising incidences of this crime and police in a number of cases has refused to lodge FIRs.
Hand phones are easier to get away than a vehicle so the cell phones are attracted to bandits than car/bike snatching, and the job of a thief is made easier. Police has been unable to trace the snatched/stolen hand phones even if the incidents are reported promptly. Hand phones can easily be sold off in the second-hand cell phone markets that have emerged at various places in the city.
These markets are functioning unchecked. Cell phones are sold at very cheap prices in these markets, but illegally.
Business persons, executives and salesmen carry hand phones and they are the main targets of the new type of innovative bandits. Police lodge the reports of innocent citizens only as "missing" of their mobile phones, totally concealing the fact that robbers at gunpoint snatched the cell phone. As a result, most of the victims do not lodge complaints at police stations, because they do not expect the recovery of their stolen or snatched hand phones.
Often people refrain from registering FIR about hand phone robbery and theft, fearing hassle in police station.
Mobile phone has many advantages and it has become a necessity now. There has been an increase in the use of cell phones during the last few years. The rise in hand phone snatching has affected the users and it is very risky to talk freely on cell phone at public places, in cars and on bikes.
The rising incidents of mobile phone snatching show that an organised group is behind this crime. The police has to take this as a 'crime' and should register FIRs of the snatched hand phones, as it is the basic right of a citizen. There should be a check on illegal selling and buying of the snatched mobile phones.