UP-based youth held for chain snatching

Arrest follows four incidents of robbery reported in Peelamedu police limits

Coimbatore City police seem to have solved the chain snatching jigsaw puzzle by arresting two youth and fixing the missing piece to get a complete picture of the crime. The police said that they had arrested Sachin Kumar, 23, and Jayaram, 26, of Muzaffarpur on Friday.

Following four incidents of chain snatching on Thursday morning, all in Peelamedu police limits between 5.00 a.m. to 7.30 a.m., City Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Traffic), T. Senthilkumar instructed the officers not to be complacent on the heels of the recent breakthrough in crime cases and the recoveries. Additional strength was provided to the Crime Prevention team from the Armed Reserve and vigil was stepped up during dawn and dusk.

Vehicle check

As part of the enhanced vigil, the Peelamedu and Singanallur police were on a vehicle-check drive in the small hours of Friday, when they found two youth not responding to their calls for stopping the vehicle.

As they tried to flee, a special team of the police chased them to Singanallur, where the Singanallur police, by erecting barricades, attempted to stop them.

The speed at which they drove the motorcycle and their inability to navigate through the barricades, made the youth lose balance, fall off the motorcycle and sustain injuries.

Case registered

The police said that they found the youth to be the suspects involved in various chain snatching incidents, reported in the city in the last couple of days. The Coimbatore city police had registered four cases, where as many women had lost 23 sovereign jewellery.

During interrogation, the police said that the two identified themselves as Sachin Kumar and Jayaram and revealed their detailed plan to rob women of their jewellery. Sharing information extracted from the accused, the police said that the two were part of a six-member gang that took turns to arrive in Coimbatore to rob women.

Prior to their arrival, the accused had despatched their motorcycle by train for use in robbery in Coimbatore. After arriving in the city, they had stayed in lodges and robbed women, who the police identified as Renuka of Peelamedu, Suseelamani of Nehru Nagar, Lakshmi of Goldwyns and Thilagavathy of SITRA, who together have lost 23 sovereigns.

The police said Kumar and Jayaram took turns riding the motorcycle while robbing the women.

After their booty touched 50 sovereigns or more, they returned home, sold the jewellery there, gave a part of it to family and spent the rest. They used to leave the motorcycles in parking lots here. The police said that they had seized two motorcycles the accused had used.

One of the two accused, Sachin Kumar, who fractured his leg, is under treatment at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.

The police team that arrested the two received a word of appreciation from Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan and DCP T. Senthilkumar.