Two persons accused in a chain snatching case and who were working as aides to mahouts while in hiding were tracked down and arrested by the Mulanthuruthy police thanks to a lookout notice issued in the media through the Information and Public Relations Department.
The arrested were identified as Jobin Jose, 23, of Velloor in Kottayam, and Prashanth, 32, of Thalayolaparambu. One K.N. Ratheesh, 32, of Vaikom was also arrested on the charge of selling the chain in a private financial institution despite knowing that it was stolen and also for selling ganja sourced by the accused from Cumbum in Tamil Nadu while in hiding there.
The accused had snatched the chain belonging to an aged woman living alone at Arakkunnam in Mulanthuruthy by dropping at her house in the guise of guests on January 3. They then fled the scene in a motorcycle. By the time the police identified the accused and launched a hunt for them with the help of CCTV footage, the accused had left the State.
They were in hiding in Tamil Nadu for a while before returning to the State. Since then, Jobin had been working as an assistant to a mahout in Paravur in Kollam and Prasanth at Haripad.
A resident of Paravur who happened to see the lookout notice in the media, identified Jobin and alerted Mulanthuruthy sub inspector M.P. Aby who, with the help of the Paravur police, took the accused into custody. His accomplice was picked up from Haripad based on his statement.
The accused reportedly confessed to have stolen two motorcycles from Thodupuzha and Thalayolaparambu in November and January and snatched another chain weighing around 2.50 sovereigns in Kaduthuruthy in January.
They also had non-bailable charges slapped on them in a case registered by the Thalayolaparambu police for attacking a DYFI activist in January.
