Police Commissioner A. Amalraj has assured that the police would take necessary steps to curb chain snatching in the city, here on Friday.

The assurance has come after a 37-year old woman J. Meenakshi died after falling off her two-wheeler while two culprits tried to snatch her chain. The incident happened near Thondamuthur Road on Wednesday night.

The deceased, who was running a milk booth near Gandhipark, was reportedly taking her 15-year old son to a hospital.

According to sources, this was the 84th chain snatching case this year and around 70 cases were reported in 2014. However, this was the first time in the last 10 years that a woman had died in a case of chain snatching.

The Commissioner said that the Department had zeroed in on the culprits and that they would be nabbed within the next few days.

“We believe they could have been visiting her shop frequently to spy on her. However, the chain is not a gold chain but an artificial one,” he said.

He further stated that such crimes were done by a network of culprits who had been in the business for long. “We believe that there is a connection between the chain snatching cases and culprits involved. Hence, we have formed five special units that would be directly handling the cases,” he added.

Mr. Amalraj informed that the city police were also planning to develop a database of all the suspects and accused in chain snatching cases for the past five years in order to identify them with the help of the victims when there was an incident.

“The database would consist of the photographs of all the suspects and would be sent to all the teams involved in the investigations. There are chances that people from nearby districts who are visiting the city for various purposes could be involved in such crimes. So, we would also be sharing the database with the police of nearby districts,” informed Mr. Amalraj.

Lauding the efforts of the city police for successfully detecting 82 per cent of the cases, the CoP informed that the remaining 18 per cent of the cases were largely chain snatching cases. “Chain snatching cases are the most hard to deal with as there is not much proof. But, we are taking steps to curb them,” he added

Amalraj also held a special meeting with the anti-chain snatching squad and distributed 32 two-wheelers for their use, on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Kongu Jananayaka Katchi President G.K. Nagaraj on Friday petitioned the City Police Commissioner A. Amalraj to curb chain snatching in the city.

In the petition, Nagaraj has urged the police department to take necessary steps to nab the culprits who snatched a chain from J. Meenakshi near Thondamuthur, resulting in her death.