Hyderabad: Rachakonda police brought the suspected mastermind behind the series of seven chain snatching incidents in two hours here on January 7 on a prisoner transfer (PT) warrant from Uttar Pradesh and lodged him in the Cherlapally prison.
The suspect was identified as Mangal alias Mangal Singh from Uttar Pradesh. His associate Pinku alias Pankaj Kumar, is at large.
The police said that on the day of the incident, they went from Hyderabad to Bengaluru and snatched five chains there before making off for their hometown.
Mangal was arrested by the Jhinijhana police in Uttar Pradesh on January 24 and lodged in Muzaffarnagar jail.
The Uppal police, while producing Mangal in court, sought his custody for at least 10 days for recovering the stolen gold chains. The order is expected on Monday, a senior Rachakonda police officer said.
On January 7, the duo while riding a bike had snatched three chains from pedestrians in Uppal and Nacharam, under the Rachakonda commissionerate, and four chains in the city. The bike they used was stolen from Ramgopalpet.
Police personnel from the Rachakonda and city commissionerates, along with Bengaluru police, dispatched 11 police teams to Uttar Pradesh and northeastern states on January 7 to track them down.
Rachakonda police teams, who were deployed to Jhinjhana, said that Mangal was arrested on January 24, after which they filed a PT warrant.
Police said Mangal was a native of Nayabans in Khanpur Kalan of Unn mandal in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh.
The operations were overseen by Rachakonda police commissioner D.S. Chauhan and involved DCP crimes Sreebala B; ACP Malkajgiri P. Naresh Reddy; Uppal inspector R. Govinda Reddy and detective inspector C. Venkateswarlu, CCS Malkajgiri inspector V. Saidulu; the CCS team led by detective inspector S. Koteshwar Rao.
