Chitlapakkam police nab chain snatcher after tracking his whereabouts for 350 km 

The Chitlapakkam Police have traced and arrested a habitual offender from Kerala who was involved in a series of chain snatching incidents, after scrutinising footage from over 2,000 CCTVs up to Vellore and back to Madhavaram and by following him for nearly 350 km. 

On September 17, at 6.45 a.m. when an elderly woman, P.Santhakumari, 69, was on a morning walk in a service road near MIT College Bridge in Chitlapakkam police station limits, an unidentified bike-borne man snatched her gold chain and fled the scene. On September 22 at 3.15 p.m., another woman S.Shanthi, 57, lost her 4.5-sovereign gold chain to an unidentified man. Both cases were investigated by the Crime Wing of Chitlapakkam police. 

A special team collected the CCTV footage from the two scenes of occurrences and closely followed the routes of the suspect who moved from Pallavaram to Kundrathur, Kancheepuram, Kaveripakkam, Walajah, Arcot and Vellore and returned from Vellore to the city via Poonamallee, Maduravoyal. Police followed him by scrutinising footage from over 2,000 CCTVs in these routes. Based on clues obtained through the footage, police arrested the suspect, who has been identified as Sasi Kunjukutti alias David Biju, 52, of Kollam in Kerala. Between 1995 and 2000, he was involved in thefts in Chromepet, Pallavaram, Sankar Nagar, Poonamallee and also involved in more than 25 chain snatchings in Kollam and Thrissur between 2000-2019. 

Meanwhile, the Kelambakkam police have arrested two suspects involved in chain snatching incidents from Bengaluru. On September 27, at around 3.30 p.m., a woman who was taking her two children home was waylaid in the Vijay Vidyashram School area, in Padur, by two unknown persons riding a motorcycle and wearing helmets. They snatched her gold chain and fled from the scene. 

Police said it was challenging to catch the offenders as they were wearing helmets and had used the vehicle without RTO registration number, to mask their identity.

In the early morning of Wednesday, at Pudupakkam Anjaneyar Temple bus stop, police personnel who were conducting vehicle checks intercepted two persons riding a two-wheeler on suspicion. On interrogation, it was found that they were the suspects — Jaison Mathew, 31, and K.Manikanda, 31, of Bengaluru. Both were arrested.

Published - October 03, 2024 11:47 pm IST