City turns unsafe after dark; muggings, chain snatching on the rise

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

Venturing out at night has become increasingly unsafe in the city. In the last 24 hours alone, two men were robbed at knifepoint, and a senior citizen was targeted in a chain-snatching incident all pointing to a growing sense of lawlessness after dark.

Despite frequent robberies reported for over eight months, both the local police and crime branch have failed to curb the trend. Residents say criminals are operating fearlessly, while detection rates remain alarmingly low. On July 22 around 1 am, Yogesh Gudhiwal (26), a Hanuman Nagar-based photographer, was returning home from work when he stopped briefly near the HP petrol pump at Ambedkar Chowk. Just then, four bike-borne men cornered him. As he resisted, two of them held him while the third brandished a knife at his throat. The gang fled with his mobile phone, Rs 1,200 in cash, and his motorcycle. A case has been filed at Jawaharnagar police station. In a similar incident the previous night (July 21), Satyaprakash Yadav (33) of Mukundwadi was walking home past the BSNL office around 11 PM when four men on a bike intercepted him. They punched him, held a knife to his neck, and snatched his mobile phone before fleeing.

Earlier that evening, 72-year-old Sarita Auti from Itkheda was returning home after attending a Haripath program at a temple in Gajanan Nagar. Around 7 PM, two unidentified men on a motorcycle approached her. The pillion rider suddenly snatched her gold chain and sped off.

Crimes rise, detection dips police under scanner

In just the first six months of 2025, the city has seen:

• 100 house break-ins

• 821 thefts

• 10 armed robberies

Yet police have solved only 20.04% of these cases.

High-crime zones include Cidco, Mukundwadi, Jawaharnagar, Pundliknagar, MIDC-Cidco, Satara, and M. Waluj police station limits. The data paints a worrying picture: criminals are emboldened, and the public is fast losing faith in law enforcement’s ability to keep the city safe.