Public nabs a chain snatcher in Hayathnagar

Hyderabad: A chain snatcher, who robbed a woman at Koheda village in Hayathnagar, was chased, caught and beaten up by villagers before being handed over to the police on Tuesday. Though his partner gave the slip to locals he was later arrested by the police. Police said that when the duo snatched a gold chain and tried to escape the victim shouted for help. Soon, some people managed to chase and pull down one of the suspects from the moving bike. The incident occurred at around 7 am when a villager, K. Lakshmamma, was going to a nearby shop to buy milk.

“The area is not densely populated and there are few people out on the streets in the morning. When Lakshmamma was walking to the shop the duo came from behind and snatched her chain. When she shouted for help, three men with bikes heard her cry,” said a local resident. “They chased them on their bike and managed to pull down one of them, the pillion rider, from the bike. The other man escaped,” he said.  

The villagers thrashed the suspect and tied him to a tree before calling the police, who arrived and took him into custody. The snatcher suffered a minor injury in the fall, officials said. Later, in the afternoon the absconding suspect was also traced by cops. Police identified the two suspects as Akshay and Sumith, two known criminals. “They were booked under the PD Act and were in prison. They came out of jail last month,” said a senior official from Hayathnagar police.

The city’s outskirts, especially lonely areas, are hotspots of chain snatching. Most of the criminals active here are known offenders with multiple cases and NBWs pending against them. The police had claimed that they were going to create a database of chain-snatchers with inputs from other districts and states to tighten the screw on snatchers.