Six-member gang held for chain snatching

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A six-member gang was arrested for snatching the gold chain of a woman near Vanchiyoor on Monday. The police identified the accused as Ashkar, 25, Askar Khan, 25, Mohammed Shan, 23, Yousuf Khan, 25, Ashiq, 22, and Riyas, 24. While Mohammed Shan is a resident of Kadhinamkulam, all other accused are residents of Beemapally in the city.
According to the police, the accused attacked the complainant, a resident of Palkulangara near Vanchiyoor on Monday morning around 6.30am at Uppidammoodu –Kunnumpuram Road.As she was walking along the road, the accused stopped their car near her in the guise of asking for directions and then snatched her chain weighing 1.5 sovereigns. The police launched a city-wide search as soon as the woman alerted them.
The police searched the surveillance camera footages and found out that the accused came in a green green Datsun Redi Go car. Since they could not make out the registration number from the camera footage, they sought the help of the motor vehicles department and took details of all green Datsun Redi Go cars that were registered here. They zeroed in on those cars that are used in rental service and by evening they identified the owner of the car, who revealed the identity of the youths who rented the vehicle.
In fact, by the time the police reached the car owner, the accused had returned the vehicle to him. The police then found out that the accused rented another car from another rental service. Soon, additional city police commissioner Kori Sanjay Kumar Gurudin launched a vehicle inspection on roads to intercept the vehicle in which the accused were travelling.
By night, the cops detected the vehicle at Muttathara, being driven by Mohammed Shan and took him into custody. On questioning, he revealed the whereabouts of other accused.
“We found a pipe wrench and a knife inside the car. We suspect that they were planning to commit more robberies in similar fashion and weapons were meant to be used in case of resistance,” said an officer, who was part of the team which made the arrests.
All the accused were produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody.