Mohali, Oct. 4 -- Boarding a bus from Zirakpur's Singhpura bus stand? Don't let your guard down. For the last few months, a familiar theme seems to be playing out. A group of women zero in on an unsuspecting target, surround them while boarding a bus, create a distraction and then flee with the victim's ornaments.

The latest such incident took place on September 7 though the victim, Pooja, a 32-year-old legal assistant working with the Haryana education department and a resident of Sector 10, Panchkula, approached the police only recently.

She told the police that she had arrived at Singhpura on a bus from Gurugram and waited for 10 to 15 minutes for a connecting bus to Panchkula. As she began boarding, four to five unidentified women a...