A young woman’s mobile phone got snatched by a miscreant who approached her from behind in an autorickshaw, near Eco Urban Village (EUV) in New Town, on June 22.

“I was sitting on the road divider of the stretch that leads out from EUV. It was afternoon and I was booking an app cap to go to office,” says the resident of Sunrise Symphony, one of the many complexes on this stretch. “Someone snatched the phone and sped off towards Owl More. I raised an alarm but couldn’t catch up.”

The police are on the case but the incident has sent shockwaves in the neighbourhood. “Youths have been crowding this stretch for months and it seems to have gotten worse after the lockdown. We have to be very careful now after this incident,” said Banani Chakraborty, also of Sunrise Symphony.

Her neighbour Richa Agarwal said she had faced eve-teasing herself here and that she has stopped going to the shanties outside to shop altogether. “I’m sending my husband now,” she says.

Anuradha Biswas of Mallika Malancha once saw youths accosting an app cab driver and slapping him for no fault of his. “These youths are getting rowdier by the day. They race their bikes, helmetless and with multiple pillion riders. Something bad is waiting to happen,” she says.

Residents also complain about the stretch from the Owl More that leads to a dead end. “Cars are parked there all night with youths drinking and partying. Last week, I was driving home at night when youths from two cars parked there came close for a better look. I sped away,” says Kakoli Saha, president of Mallika Malancha Apartment Owners’ Association.

Residents have also come across men and women inside these parked cars in the dead of the night in compromising positions.

Snigdha Nandi of Sunny Fort has found liquor bottles dumped on these roads in the morning. “I frequently complain about them on the NKDA helpline and officials duly come and clean the place out. But why should these be allowed in the first place?” says the lady who has stopped walking to the shops outside her complex for fear. “It’s barely a 10-minute walk but I always take the car.”

With the lockdown having rendered many youths jobless, mobile and chain snatchings may be on the rise, fears Mona Roychowdhury of Sunny Fort. “But it’s not enough for us to be careful. We need speed breakers and a police outpost here,” she says.

Suvechhya Pal of Hiland Willows says that the electric bus charging station opposite her complex is a favourite haunt of these youths. “We can hear them making merry till late at night,” she says. “We need a police outpost here to keep them in check.”

In December, women of these complexes had met Debashis Sen, chairman of New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA), with these issues.

“We are aware of the security problem on this stretch and are dealing with it,” Sen told The Telegraph Salt Lake. “One particular lane there, that had become notorious, has been blocked and we are building a road there now. The security guards of EUV have been asked to stay alert and we are on the verge of installing CCTVs on this stretch.”

As for the stolen mobile phone, an officer of the Eco Park police station says they are trying to track it using the phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.

“The road in question does not have CCTV coverage so we approached a housing complex opposite to the site of the theft,” said the officer. “But their camera is angled towards the gate and not the road outside. So despite spotting the auto in question in the footage, we could not read its licence plate,” the officer said.

Additional reporting by Sudeshna Banerjee