Telangana: Gang of 4 chain snatchers nabbed

Hyderabad: In a major breakthrough, the Rachakonda police on Monday nabbed four members of a chain-snatchers gang who had been targeting women and causing panic in LB Nagar neighbourhood in the recent past. The four accused included three engineering students and a college dropout, police said. 

Interrogations revealed that the gang was involved in 18 other robberies committed in a span of three months. 

The suspects used to borrow bikes from friends to commit the offences. One of the suspects is the son of a police constable. 

The arrested — identified as Chavan Suraj, Kommu Pavan Kumar, Mohd Owais Ahmed and Mamidi Rohit Kumar — are addicted to ganja, alcohol and a lavish lifestyle. They took to snatching and to maintain their lifestyle. 

Police said none of them owned vehicles and borrowed bikes and scooters from friends on the pretext of a ride or work. They would commit robberies and return the bikes without their friends even knowing what they were up to. 

More than a month ago, they four were apprehended by patrolling teams who found them moving about suspiciously, but they got away by showing their student identity cards. 

Often the accused were very high on ganja and even forgot the places they committed the crimes. After detaining them, police showed the CCTV footage of different cases they were involved in, after which they confessed to their involvement in the offences. All four were found to have attended drug de-addiction counselling; one of them is in fact still undergoing treatment. 

Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said that all the suspects were detained from their college campuses. They robbed elderly women or women walking alone on deserted streets, and spent the booty on ganja, alcohol etc, he said. 

“They are involved in nine snatching cases in LB Nagar, five in Saroornagar, two in Chaitanyapuri and one each in Meerpet and Vanasthalipuram.”

Interstate burglar held
Meanwhile in another case, the Adibatla police nabbed a burglar involved in 18 or so cases in Telangana and AP and recovered valuables worth Rs 6 lakh from him. Police said the accused, Shiva, worked as a daily wage labour, stole valuables from houses that remained locked for long. 

Police recovered 19 tolas of gold and Rs 50,000 cash, all worth around Rs 6,20,000, from him.

Woman robbed of gold chain at railway station
Chain snatchers on the prowl at Secunderabad railway station struck yet again when they robbed a women passenger of her 2.7 tola gold chain. The woman was about a board a train on platform no 4 when the incident occurred, police said.  

This is the fifth chain-snatching incident at the railway station since December, and like in the past the accused targeted women at a spot on the platform where there were no CCTV cameras.

According to the police, the victim, 29- year-old housewife K. Kavitha, reached the Secunderabad station on Monday morning to travel to Uppal by Sirpur Khagaznagar bound Intercity Express. As the train arrived on platform 4 and Ms Kavitha tried to board it amidst crowding at the door, she felt a sharp tug on her neck. She checked, and realised that her gold chain weighing 27 gm had been snatched. Based on her complaint, the Railway Police registered a case and started investigation. 

Earlier in December, four chain-snatching cases had occurred inside the railway station, where the suspects targeted women as they were boarding trains from crowded platforms. In all incidents, the accused chose spots that were not covered by CCTV cameras.