Bengaluru: Two snatch chains to fund an app; booked

Bengaluru: Choosing a dubious way to accomplish their dream of developing a mobile phone app, with information about all the schools, has proved costly for two friends and former jail birds, as they are once again behind bars.

The duo, Zabiuddin alias Tabrez (30) and Arun Kumar (36), became close buddies in Parappana Agrahara Central Prison while serving their jail term for involvement in various crimes.

While in jail, the duo had planned to lead a normal life and decided to have a ‘school app’ which would provide all the details of schools and colleges on the click of a button and earn through it.

However when they consulted an app developer, he demanded Rs 2 lakh, which they could not afford. They then decided to use their old skills, which had earlier landed them in jail.

The accused stole gold chains and robbed people in order to raise Rs 2 lakh. But soon they got used to the easy money they earned through thefts and withheld their App plan.

 However, their luck soon ran out and they were nabbed by the Bengaluru city police (South Division). The police have recovered 1.2 kg of gold ornaments worth Rs 35lakh and claimed to have solved 29 cases of chain snatching reported in 17 different police stations. The accused snatched gold chains between March and June 2017.

While Zabiuddin previously was involved in 49 cases of robbery, chain snatching and murder, his buddy Arun was involved in a murder and a robbery case.

Modus operandi
Both Zabiuddin and Arun used their bike to commit the crimes. Arun, however, was intelligent enough to realise that they could be easily caught because of the registration number of their bike. Hence, Arun surfed the internet to get some effective tips on how to fake registration numbers of vehicles and came across some bikes put for sale on OLX. Anil then noted down the numbers of these bikes and started using these numbers on his bike while committing crimes.