Criminals continue to commit loot with impunity at public places in the steel city, leaving police in dire straits.

A fresh incident of snatching took place on the busy Sakchi-Mango road near MGM medical college hospital gate where two bike-borne criminals snatched away a bag containing Rs 20,000 from the hand of a woman on Wednesday night while she was riding pillion on her husband's scooter.

While snatching the bag, the criminals had pulled the victim down from the scooter, causing her to sustain a grievous head injury. The victim, identified as Shama Parveen (40), had to be admitted to the Tata Main Hospital.

The victim's husband Firoz Imam said they were returning home at Zakirnagar in Mango having done shopping at the Sakchi market.

"I can not say exactly how did the criminals know about the cash in the bag that my wife was holding. As we were negotiating the Sakchi-Mango road, a bike overtook my scooter and suddenly stopped in from of my vehicle. Before I could understand, the two criminals snatched away the bag from my wife's hand," said Imam while talking to this website.

Imam (45), who works in Dubai and was scheduled to take a flight from Delhi for Dubai on Friday, had to postpone his program. The couple lodged an FIR with the Sakchi police s5ation.

OC, Sakchi thana, Rajesh Kumar Singh said they tried to detect the snatchers by carrying out random search operations in the city but have not been able to get any clue to the criminals involved in the case.

"Those who committed the snatching must have followed the victim from the Sakchi market and finally snatched away the bag near the MGM medical college hospital gate," said the OC while talking to The Telegraph Online.

On February 20, two bike-borne criminals had snatched away a gold chain worth over Rs four lakh from a woman's neck at Baradwari under the Sitaramdera thana area. Earlier on February 18, two bike-borne criminals had snatched away gold ornaments worth over Rs 10 lakhs from two staff of a jewelry shop at Sakchi. On February 14, two criminals had decamped with cash worth Rs 32 lakhs from the staff of a leading jewelry shop in Bistupur.

The police have not been able to detect any of these criminal incidents nor were they be able to curb the recurrence of snatching incidents.