A special team of the city police caught a chain snatcher who evaded arrest for five years along with his associate. They have seized 51 gold chains, a car, a mini freight vehicle, and two bikes worth Rs 1.5 crore from the duo.
Santosh Kumar, who lives in JP Nagar, has been wanted in cases registered at 32 different police stations. He is a native of Tamil Nadu. His 32-year-old associate Ravi from Arakere helped Santosh dispose of the snatched chains.
With the duo’s arrest, the police have solved 51 chain-snatching cases reported in Bengaluru and Ramanagara. Santosh has been arrested for the first time though he was into chain snatching for the last five years.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) P Krishnakant had formed a special team headed by Puttenahalli police inspector Munireddy V to nab the chain snatchers.
225 hrs of CCTV footage scrutinised
A team of 30 policemen collected CCTV footage from 900 cameras, including those in South Bengaluru, and analysed the footage running up to 225 hours.
Earlier, officials from different police stations, where the chain-snatching cases were registered, had verified CCTV footage of around 2,000 cameras and urged the public to help them identify the suspects by circulating CCTV images.
Santosh’s associate Manohar is still at large.
On August 12, police spotted a biker riding near the BMTC bus stand in Kothanur Dinne, who resembled the most wanted chain snatcher. They detained the biker and subjected him to interrogation. Santosh confessed to the crime and police arrested Ravi based on the information he provided.
By verifying CCTV footage from several chain-snatching spots, it was found that the same set of people had committed many of the offences. But the culprits were not
arrested.
“A special team succeeded in nabbing the accused by making efforts continuously for nearly two months,” said Bengaluru Police Commissioner C H Pratap Reddy.
Reddy said the number plate makers have been instructed to verify the registration certificate (RC) of the vehicle if someone approaches them for the number plate.
“During the investigation, we will verify from where the accused got the high-security number plates. Most of the time he used to commit the offence alone, but a few times he took the help of Manohar,” he said.